Asking For A Favor
by hammanop
Summary: Tsuna thought that life would return to normal after the fight with Daemon, but when he finds himself involved in an American mafia dispute what else is there to do but try and help? Especially when the heir to that mafia is missing? OCs, AU.
1. Fortunata

Disclaimer: I don't own KHR. I only own my characters :) Oh, and this is my first fanfic, so please take good care of me!

There will be some cussing in here, but I think that if you can handle it in the manga/anime then you can handle it in here. It's not like I'm going to do this: "You #$%, go #$^& and *^%$ #$%%$!" So...yeah, I think you guys get my point. Also a little side note, I'll mostly keep it in my OC's Ani's POV as well as Tsuna''s, but I'll also include others; just to avoid confusion. Anyways, enjoy.

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><p>Tsuna was so warm. He snuggled in deeper into his bed and sighed. "Dame-Tsuna, wake up," a squeaky voice ordered. Tsuna groaned and pulled his blankets over his head in an attempt to block out the voice. "Wake up!"<p>

"Come on, Reborn. It's Saturday," he mumbled. Tsuna sighed and peered at the clock from under his sheets, "Besides, it's only ten in the morning. Let me sleep in for once, would you?" Then there was that familiar clicking sound that made Tsuna's blood run cold every time he heard it.

"Wake up, Dame-Tsuna, or I'll shoot you through the head and then I'll really give you a reason to sleep in," Reborn growled. And sure enough, when Tsuna pulled back his covers there was Leon, in gun form, pointed at him. Tsuna immediately shot up and put his arms up protectively, his sheets thrown back.

"HIIIEEE! Don't shoot! I'm up, I'm up!" he shrieked and tumbled out of his bed.

Reborn smirked, "That's what I thought." Leon transformed back to his original form and crawled back up onto Reborn's fedora. He stuck his tongue out at Tsuna, and Tsuna couldn't help but feel that Leon was mocking him. "Now go get dressed. The Ninth sent a letter of some urgency so we need to have a family meeting. Everyone's here already."

"What! Why didn't you wake me up sooner then?" Tsuna cried as he dressed under record time. Reborn shrugged.

"Didn't feel like it," he replied, and leaned back against the pillow that Tsuna's head had been using just until a minute ago.

"Well, that's nice to know," Tsuna muttered, buttoning up his shirt. Suddenly, a small foot connected with the side of his head, sending him flying out into the hallway. Tsuna groaned and grabbed at his head, turning to glare at Reborn who was now standing at the doorway with a menacing glint in his beady, black eyes.

"Go downstairs. Now. As a mafia boss you have to be considerate for your family. I won't tolerate this rudeness," Reborn growled. Holding his head, and partly shielding his head, Tsuna reluctantly got up and made his way downstairs, not wanting to get kicked again. He sighed, he had never wanted to be a mafia boss in the first place. But no matter how much he said this nobody ever listened, and if they did then they ignored him or twisted his words around so that they meant the opposite.

Sighing again, Tsuna turned into the living room and gawked slightly at how crowded it was. All of his guardians, except Hibari and Mukuro, of course were here. Fuuta, Bianchi, and I-pin were here though, although that was probably a given. Somehow, Reborn had gotten down here before him, since he was already sitting on Bianchi's lap while she played with his curly sideburns.

Tsuna watched as I-pin and Lambo ran around the room with I-pin yelling at Lambo to behave. Instead, Lambo guffawed and taunted her, yelling something about how she could never catch him and how she was stupid. Gokudera was scowling at everyone, and was especially avoiding looking at Bianchi, even though she was wearing her goggles. Yamamoto was being, well, Yamamoto. He laughed as I-pin tackled Lambo to the ground and pinned him down by his arms causing him to cry with frustration and embarrassment.

"Tolerate..." Tsuna sighed, and just hoped that Lambo wouldn't resort to using the ten-year bazooka. Of course, Gokudera was the first person to notice Tsuna.

"Ah! Good morning, Tenth!", he greeted and bounded over to his side. That caught everyone else's attention and they all started to say their greetings.

"GREETINGS TO THE EXTREME, SAWADA!" Ryohei yelled. He stood up and punched into the air several times. "I have a feeling that this meeting will be really EXTREME!"

"Shut up, Turf-head!" Gokudera hissed. "You're being too loud!" Tsuna sighed as they ended up getting into an argument, and just ignored them.

"Yo, Tsuna!" Yamamoto grinned, getting up from the couch.

"Good morning, Boss," Chrome said from the corner of the room. Tsuna's mother came out from the kitchen carrying snacks and drinks.

"Oh, good morning, Tsuna," she beamed at him, "isn't it so nice to get together with your friends like this? I think it's absolutely refreshing."

Tsuna sighed. Only his mother would think something like this was refreshing. Yamamoto lumbered over to Tsuna and slung an arm over his shoulder.

"Hey, Tsuna. I heard the news from Reborn. We're having another mission, right? I'm getting really excited, aren't you?" he said, his trademark grin plastered on his face.

"Um, we are?" Reborn hadn't told him anything. He'd only threatened him like he usually did. Tsuna glared at Reborn briefly before he felt a killing aura emanating from Gokudera.

"Hey, Baseball-Freak! Don't touch the Tenth so casually, or I'll blow you up until there's nothing left but ash!" He snarled, pulling out dynamite from wherever it was he kept them.

"HIIIEE! Gokudera, calm down!" Tsuna shrieked waving his arms around.

Yamamoto just laughed, "Ma ma, calm down Gokudera. No need to get all worked up."

"Right! So let's just sit down and listen to what Reborn has to say," Tsuna begged. Gokudera glared at Yamamoto once more before putting his dynamite away.

"All right, whatever you say, Tenth," he plopped down on the couch and lit a cigarette. Tsuna followed suit, (without the cigarette, though!) and made sure that he sat in between Gokudera and Yamamoto, who had also joined them on the couch.

Nana covered her mouth and giggled before heading back into the kitchen, "Play nice, now, Tsuna. I'll go make some more snacks." And of course, the snacks that his mom had brought in just minutes ago were already devoured. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Reborn and Bianchi wiping at their mouths with a napkin, while Ryohei belched patting at his stomach.

Once Nana was gone Reborn coughed to get everyone's attention, "All right, then. Now that Dame-Tsuna's finally got his family calmed down let's get on with the family meeting." Bianchi nodded in agreement, while Tsuna frowned in annoyance. Reborn jumped off of Bianchi and onto the coffee table, pulling a letter out of his jacket as he did so. Tsuna recognized the flame on the letter as the Ninth's, showing that it was official. He gulped slightly as Reborn opened it and laid the contents out on the table.

There was a piece of paper with writing on it that Tsuna recognized at the Ninth's, a picture of a girl, and to Tsuna's surprise a large wad of cash as well. How did all of that fit into the letter?

"Whoa, what's the money for, Reborn?" Tsuna asked. Everyone was eying the money with interest. What really caught Tsuna's attention was that they were U.S Dollar bills, not Euros or even Yen.

"If you'd actually let me talk, Dame-Tsuna, then I could answer your question," Reborn said, a dangerous glint in his eyes. Tsuna eeped, and closed his mouth. "Anyways, the Ninth sent this letter just last night. It's actually pretty important so I'll read it out to you."

_Dear Reborn, Tsunayoshi and family,_

_First, I must apologize for this sudden notice, but when I received word about this from the boss of the Fortunata Family, I felt that we had to do everything in our power to help. I must also ask Reborn to explain our relations to the Fortunata family after you read this so everything can be fully understood. There are certain things that must be known before you can involve yourselves._

_But, I digress. The boss of the Fortunata Family, Martin, personally came to see me, and many other mafioso bosses. It seems as though it was his time to choose the next boss for his family. In this case, his daughter, Anima Fortunata, was meant to have her ceremony on the last day of last month, which was October. However, the day before the ceremony took place Anima mysteriously disappeared. It is unknown whether she was kidnapped or if she just ran away. Whatever the case may be, Martin has asked many of us for this favor: to find his daughter and bring her back safe and alive._

_It seems that Martin is very desperate to find his daughter, because he has offered up ten million U.S Dollars up front to each family, and promised 30 million to whomever brings back his daughter. I split the money he gave me, so the amount of money you all have in front of you is about 1 million U.S Dollars. It seems fair to give you this money since you'll be doing most of the grunt work, and however you wish to split that amongst yourselves is up to you. I also gave the 1 million to Varia, who will also be assisting with the search. I suspect that they'll arrive in Namimori in about seven days._

_I'm not asking you all to do this just because of the money, well that is part of the reason, but the main reason is that doing this favor for the Fortunata Famiglia will help increase our relationship with them, and thus works in our favor as well. The only advice I can offer you right now is that the last anybody has seen or heard of Anima's location was supposedly in Japan, so that gives us a head start and an advantage. Please, Tsunayoshi, do this for the sake of the Vongola._

_Best of luck,_

_Vongola Nono_

_P.S. I look forward to hearing about how all of you are doing._

"Oh my god! Varia's coming! Why would the Ninth send them here! They'll just dest- OWOWOW! I give! I give, Reborn!" Reborn jumped behind Tsuna then twisted his arm so far back that there was actually a large popping sound.

"So long as you understand, Dame-Tsuna," Reborn smirked, letting go of Tsuna's arm and jumping back onto the table.

Everyone was silent as Reborn started speaking again, "So as you all can see we have a big mission on our hands. Like Nono said, you need to know a little bit more about the Fortunata Family before you go through with this mission. And I, being the knowledgeable hitman that I am, will graciously enlighten all you young minds." Tsuna rolled his eyes, which resulted in a whack from the Leon-hammer. Reborn continued as Gokudera fussed over the bump Tsuna was sporting on the top of his head.

"The Fortunata Family's location is in the United States, and their power rivals that of the Vongola's, to some extent. They haven't been around for as long, but they are still very influential. Despite this, the Vongola haven't always been in the best of relationships with the Fortunata. We've had a few major battles with them, so I can see why Nono is so eager to help them. I've also heard rumors of a power that they posses that can destroy the world. I'd be best if we were on their side in that case. This could ease tensions between our two families and something good could come out of this," Reborn paused in thought, then smirked, "It would also be in our favor if we do rescue the next heir so we can basically build a new relationship between two new bosses," Reborn looked at Tsuna as he was saying this, "all right then, everyone, we'll meet up later to start our search, so don't be late!"

Tsuna frowned, he was still trying to get what Reborn was suggesting earlier. When he turned to ask Gokudera, he saw him gawking at Reborn like he had been speaking a completely different language.

"Are you serious, Reborn-san? A relationship between the Tenth and the Fortunata heir?" Reborn just smirked and tipped his fedora so that it covered his eyes. Then he started walking off with Bianchi following right behind him.

"Who knows..."

After a few more seconds, something finally clicked in Tsuna's head. He blushed and screamed after Reborn. "That's not funny at all, Reborn! There's no way that will happen!"

Ryohei had his head tilted in thought. "Arrghh!" he punched the air in front of him repeatedly and turned towards Tsuna, "I don't get it to the EXTREME, Sawada!" Tsuna face-palmed while Gokudera began yelling at Turf-head about how he was a complete, fucking idiot. And of course Ryohei just decided to begin throwing punches in order to shut up Octopus-head.

XxXxXxX

Two days had passed without any sort of leads and Tsuna was starting to wonder if they would ever find Anima at all. Japan was such a large area, and was pretty crowded as well. It was like finding a needle inside a haystack. He sighed and looked out the classroom window as the teacher rambled on about some math stuff that Tsuna really didn't feel like paying attention to.

This whole thing was probably just going to add unnecessary stress to their lives. The inheritance ceremony had been not too long ago either. Even then he had only gone through with it because Yamamoto had been attacked and he had wanted to find the culprits. The culprits had ended up being Enma and his family. Things were cleared up between them now that Daemon Spade was gone.

Even so, Tsuna wasn't going to be the Vongola tenth boss, ever, so why did he always have to become involved in this mafia business?

Sighing, he remembered the picture of Anima. At first he was expecting someone who looked really tough and mean, but she had looked like such a normal person. Blonde hair, green eyes...he wouldn't be surprised if Anima had run away to avoid the mafia life. If Tsuna had the choice, he would probably choose the non-mafia life, too.

Tsuna glanced over at Enma who was starting to doze off. He vaguely wondered if he should try asking him for help. They _could_ cover more ground that way, but...no. He shook his head and discarded the thought. He didn't want to drag Enma into anything that could end up being dangerous, even though he was probably strong enough to handle it.

Tsuna glanced over at Gokudera and Yamamoto who were both paying attention to the teacher, and when Gokudera noticed Tsuna looking he grinned and waved enthusiastically.

"Sawada-san."

Tsuna rubbed at his eyes and yawned.

"Sawada-san!" Tsuna startled when he realized that the teacher was addressing him.

"Yes, Sensei?" He asked standing up.

"Am I boring you, Sawada-san?" She asked, crossing her arms and tapping her foot on the ground impatiently.

"N-no, Sensei," he stammered, feeling his cheeks starting to burn. Some of his classmates snickered at him.

"All right then, since I'm not boring you, then I assume that you know how to solve this, correct?" she stepped aside to reveal a very difficult looking math problem on the blackboard. Wait! Why was there a 'z' in that equation!

"Um..." Tsuna started doing calculations in his head. Oh, why did she have to pick on him all the time. Everyone in the class jumped when something crashed against the blackboard, causing a large crack to splinter across the middle of it.

"You bitch! How dare you pick on the Tenth like this!" Gokudera was standing with one foot on his desk and the other on his seat, while his hands were full of dynamite. "I'll fucking kill you!"

The teacher gawked at Gokudera and backed up against the unbroken parts of the blackboard with horror plastered on her face. Gokudera lit the dynamite and swept his arms back ready to throw.

"Wait! Gokudera, STOP!" Tsuna yelled trying to calm him down. Suddenly, the classroom door shot open and a gleam of silver sailed through the air and collided with the side of Gokudera's head. Gokudera let out a strangled cry and fell back onto the floor.

Unfortunately, the dynamite fuses were still lit, and they ended up blowing out the wall creating a magnificent window that really allowed one to see how calm and peaceful it was ouside. People in the class let out some screams of terror, but Tsuna wasn't sure if they were because of the explosion, or because of the menacing figure who was standing in the doorway .

"For disrupting the peace in Namimori, I'll bite you to death, Herbivore." Tsuna cringed. Then when he turned to look he saw Hibari glaring at only him, with his remaining tonfa at the ready. Everyone in the room cleared a path for Hibari as he lunged towards Tsuna.

Why did God hate him?

XxXxXxX

It was such a hot day today, with the sun at its peak in the middle of the sky. And of course she was thirsty. So thirsty. When was the last time she had something to drink? Oh. Right...it was yesterday morning. She had run out of money then, too.

She stumbled as she took another step, but caught herself and sighed. She couldn't find any water fountains anywhere. Wasn't Japan well known for having an abundance of water? She didn't want to ask for help either because she couldn't draw any attention to herself.

She opened her eyes and noticed that she had somehow ended up in the middle of a town. There had to be a water fountain around somewhere. A sudden dizzy spell came over her and she fell down onto her knees. If only her dad could see her now. She laughed at the thought and tried pulling herself up but she just fell back down.

Panting, she managed to crawl over to a nearby wall and lean against it, taking in deep breaths. As she watched the crowd of people walking past, she closed her eyes and pressed her cheek against the cool wall. Nobody was bothering to help her. Some people gave her concerned looks, but then they just ended up walking away.

It was probably better that way. If she was taken to a hospital then it would be easy for her dad - especially her brother - to find her. And that wouldn't be good. She licked her lips in an attempt to moisten them, but it only made them more chapped.

Dang it, she knew she should have grabbed that extra couple hundred dollars. She sighed and felt her ears start ringing. She was so tempted to just go to sleep and get away from all of this. It sounded so nice.

"Hey, are you alright?" someone asked. It was a boy's voice. She felt a cool hand being placed on her forehead, which made her cringe at how cold it felt. Where was she anyways? It was starting to become difficult to focus on the things around her. She couldn't even see the face of whomever it was that had stopped to help her.

The boy worried when she didn't answer, so he wrapped an arm around her and hoisted her up. "I'll get you some help, all right?" He wasn't really expecting her to answer him, but he was surprised when he heard her murmuring something. "What?"

Suddenly she grabbed onto his shirt with more strength then he'd expected her to have. "No hospital. Please! I can't!" she croaked. He could feel her hands shaking under her grip.

"Well, all right," the boy complied, "I'll take you to my house, then, if that's okay? It's not too far." She didn't reply, and he hoped that meant that she was giving some sort of consent. It would be really awkward if she didn't remember any of this. He tried guiding her along, but she stumbled after taking a few steps.

She didn't even have the strength in her to stand up? It was hard to hold her like this though, so he bent down and hoisted her up onto his back. He felt her wrap her arms around his necks, causing him to choke slightly under her hold.

"So what's your name? Mine's Yamamoto Takeshi."

He frowned when she didn't reply after a while, and began walking briskly back to his house, being careful not to make the ride too rough for the girl. He was halfway to his house by now. He heard her muttering something, and he could only do that since her face was next to his ear. "Ani. My name's Ani."

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><p>So...Did you like it? Hate it? Do you see any mistakes? The only way I'll know is if you review~ I'm just joking, but reviews would be nice. I'll try to update weekly so stay tuned.<p> 


	2. Plots and Mystery

Sorry for the late update, school and finals were so busy...but now it's break and I have all the time in the world right now to work on this! I've been a little lazy, too. Sorry, guys! Any English spoken will be in _italics_, only when Japanese is spoken alongside it. I'll try not to make it too confusing.

Disclaimer: I don't own Katekyo Hitman Reborn. I only own Ani, and the Fortunata Family.

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><p><em>Ani was lying down on her bed, and could feel herself burning up from inside-out.<em>

"_Jeez, Ani. Why do you always have to push yourself like this?" Her dad was at the side of her bed, clad in his business suit. He looked at her, his eyes laced with concern, and Ani smiled at him reassuringly._

"_I'm fine Dad. It's just a little fever, nothing I haven't had before. Besides, I still have to go train with Ira and the others." Ani made to get up, but her father gently pushed her back down and tucked in the sheets so that they were taught, trapping her. "Come on, Dad! I'm fine!" She struggled to loosen the sheets, but stopped when she noticed the look her father was giving her._

"_No you're not, Ani. Just listen to me this one time, all right? We have to make your fever go down soon, otherwise it will get bad, and that won't happen if you're out in this heat training. Besides, I already told the others that there would be no training today." Ani sighed in defeat. There was no beating her dad, was there? She nodded her head reluctantly._

"_That's my girl," he said, running a hand through her hair, which was starting to become matted with sweat. "Besides, a mafia boss needs to take a break sometimes, too."_

"_Really?" Ani asked, looking at her dad._

_He smiled at her, "Yes, Ani. Otherwise you'd wear down your body, and make yourself more prone to sickness. You should set a good example for the family as well," Ani soaked in his words, then nodded and tried stifling a yawn. Her dad noticed this and smiled gently. "All right, I'll let you rest now. I'll have someone bring you some chicken soup later, okay? And please rest, I need to talk to you about something after you get better."_

"_What about?" Ani frowned, a little confused as to what her father wanted to talk to her about. Her dad laughed and pet the top of her head ruffling her hair a little bit. She scrunched her eyes shut as some hair fell into her eyes, and opened them when he pulled his hand away. _

"_I'll let you know once you're feeling better, okay?" _

"_Okay," Ani sighed. She closed her eyes, but opened them again when she heard her father's voice, "Oh, Marco, have you come to see your sister?"_

_Ani didn't hear a reply, but she must have missed it because her father continued walking down the hallway until his footsteps could no longer be heard. Ani turned her head and standing in the doorway was her older brother, Marco. He smiled when their eyes met and moved to her side, bending down and placing a hand on her forehead. _

_"Hey, Ani. You're not going to die on me are you?" he joked._

_Ani laughed softly, "No, not yet, Marco. I'll save that for when I get a little bit older." Marco smiled, but Ani was shocked to see a sudden coldness behind it. He patted Ani on her head once more and let his hand rest there._

_Ani just kept silent as she stared into Marco's eyes while trying to hide her fear and confusion. Where had this sudden animosity come from? It wasn't like Marco to act like this at all. Even at times when Ani had seen him at his angriest he'd never acted like this, especially towards her._

"_That's good. I'd _hate _to see anything happen to you, Little Sister," he said standing up. As he did so he traced a line with his nail across her cheek leaving an angry red mark, "I have some business to attend to as well, but I'll be back to visit you later." He waited to see if Ani would reply, but when she didn't he took that as his cue to leave. "Sweet dreams, Ani. Get well soon."_

XxXxXxX

"Hey, Dad? When do you think she's going to wake up?"

"Soon probably. We shouldn't push her. When she's ready to wake up then that's when she's ready to wake up. It looks like she needs her rest anyways." Ani shifted slightly under her sheets and was tempted to open her eyes, but kept them closed since she wasn't sure where she was exactly.

There was a shuffling of feet, and Ani peeked through one eye to see that whoever was there earlier had left. Ani wondered why they were speaking in Japanese, when she remembered that she was in Japan. She groaned and smacked herself mentally. She really was so air-headed sometimes.

Ani propped herself up with her hands and sat up slowly, wincing as her aching muscles protested against the movements. She stretched until she heard a satisfying crack then sighed and dropped her arms on her lap.

She ran a hand through her hair experimentally and grimaced as her fingers caught at the ends. Ani was usually proud of her brown hair, but now it was caked with grease and grime, making it look black. Her clothes were no better. Her jeans were decorated with holes and dirt stains while her shirt was torn and covered with mud.

No wonder no one had bothered helping her, she must have looked like a crazy person. Ani unconsciously clutched at the bed sheets, but let go in shock when she realized that they were sparkling in comparison to her hands.

Sighing, she looked around, hoping to find out some more about where she was. Whoever had helped her had to be really kind to help a complete stranger like her. She pursed her lips in concentration as she tried remembering who had helped her when a voice interrupted her thoughts.

"Oh, you're awake. Dad! She's awake!" Ani turned to look at the person standing in the doorway. He was tall and lean, with spiky, black hair, brown eyes, and the build of an athlete. He was dressed in what she guessed was a school uniform and walked over to her with a smile on his face.

"Hey, so...how are you feeling, Ani-chan?" Ani startled. When had she told him her name?

"_Who are you_?" she asked, trying to keep calm. He gave her a quizzical look, and Ani smacked herself mentally for her mistake. "Sorry. Er...Who are you?"

She stared at his face and tried remember if he was the one who had helped her. "And where am I?" He shifted uneasily under her gaze, but pulled over a chair that was near and sat down.

"Oh! Um," he scratched his cheek nervously, "Well, first off, my name is Yamamoto Takeshi, and you're at my house. I found you collapsed on the street." Ah, now she remembered.

She interrupted him before he could say anything else. "Right, I remember now. You helped me out." She studied his face some more and decided that he seemed to be a nice enough guy. "You even listened to me."

"What?" He knit his brows together in confusion.

"Oh, I mean, you didn't take me to a hospital. Thanks," she smiled gratefully at him.

"Oh. No problem." Yamamoto shifted in his seat, and looked like he wanted to ask Ani something, but stopped when footsteps sounded from outside the room and an older looking man walked in.

Ani noticed that he looked a lot like Yamamoto, except his face was longer and squarer, and of course the wrinkles that came with age. He also had a white band tied around his head.

"Well, good afternoon. It's nice to meet you. My name is Yamamoto Tsuyoshi," He bowed slightly and grinned at her, "It's good to see that you're feeling well. Can I ask what your name is?"

Ani hesitated. It wasn't safe for her to just give out her name to everyone she met, but something about these people told her that she could trust them.

"Um, I'm Ani," she said smiling and bowing back slightly, "thank you for taking care of me, _Mr. Tsuyoshi_." He looked at her strangely. Yamamoto laughed.

"You're not from around here, are you Ani-chan?" he asked. Ani looked at him quizzically until she realized what he was talking about.

"Oh! I'm sorry!" she cried, covering her mouth with her hand. She forgot that in Japan, names were said backwards. Tsuyoshi was his first name, not his last. That wasn't even the worst part of it. She said Mr. Tsuyoshi! How embarrassing.

Ani could feel her face burning up, since in Japan saying ones first name implied intimacy or closeness, which was something that they _did_ _not_ have. "I completely forgot! I'm from the United States so I got a little confused. I'm so sorry!"

Ani smacked herself mentally again. Why'd she just go and tell him she was from the U.S.? At this rate she might as well tell them her whole life story.

He just waved his hands dismissively, and smiled. "It's quite all right. I don't mind. But if you want you can just call me Tsuyoshi."

"All right...Tsuyoshi," Ani said, testing out the words. She wasn't used to speaking so much Japanese at one time, and it was starting to make her mouth tingle. Tsuyoshi smiled and elbowed Yamamoto.

"This guy is my son, Yamamoto Takeshi, just in case he never introduced himself," Tsuyoshi grinned jokingly. Yamamoto rolled his eyes.

"Of course I introduced myself, Pops," Yamamoto complained, but smiled anyways.

Ani bit her tongue, trying not to smile along with them. Their smiles seemed to be somewhat contagious. She got the feeling that these people were probably too happy and carefree for their own good.

Yamamoto turned to Ani, "You can call me whatever you want, Ani-chan, but Yamamoto is just fine." Ani nodded.

"Well, thank you both again, Yamamoto and Tsuyoshi-san," the brunette said while gingerly plucking the bed sheets off of her, "But I'd best be going."

Tsuyoshi looked at her in surprise, "Eh? How come? You can't be moving around yet, you need to rest some more." When she didn't answer he pushed on, "If you're worried about being a bother to us then don't. It's fine if you stay for a bit. Rest up and once you're all better you can go home."

_Home._ That last word felt like a dagger being thrust into Ani's heart and then twisted around repeatedly. Her eyes started stinging, so she buried her face against her legs to try and hide them. She felt a lump form in her throat and she inhaled sharply to try and hold herself together.

Tsuyoshi and Yamamoto were shocked at Ani's sudden change in mood, and watched her uneasily, unsure of what to do. They glanced at each other, trying to decide how to best approach this. By silent agreement Yamamoto took initiative.

"Do you have a home to go back to, Ani-chan?" he asked quietly. The brunette hesitated then shook her head from where it was resting on her knees.

"No," she started hiccuping and felt hot tears spill out from her eyes wetting her jeans, "I can't go back home. I just can't. I can't." She rubbed away at her tears angrily with the back of her hands.

Tsuyoshi placed a hand on the sobbing girl's shoulder. She looked up to see his features laced with concern. "Ani-chan, if you'd like you can stay here for as long as you want, all right? It won't be a bother to us at all."

Ani shook her head in protest and hid her face again. "Really, it's no bother. Listen, I won't ask about why you can't go home, but just promise that you'll rest up for a day or two. Please, I'm asking this as another father. Can you do that as a favor to us at least?"

Ani didn't answer, instead she looked at the two dark-haired males who were both looking at her worriedly. Ani hesitated at the pleading looks both Yamamoto and Tsuyoshi were giving her, so she wiped at her eyes once more and reluctantly nodded, hugging her legs to her chest.

She could actually feel a smile emanating from Tsuyoshi even though she wasn't looking at him. "All right, then. I have to get back to work, so I'll leave Takeshi to take care of you." Ani watched him move away out of the corner of her eye. Suddenly he turned back with a mischievous smirk, "Oh, and, Takeshi?" Yamamoto turned to look at him, "try not to be _too_ helpful, okay?"

Yamamoto's face flushed a bright red, "Dad!" he whined. Tsuyoshi winked playfully and disappeared into the hall laughing. Yamamoto groaned and covered his mouth with a hand, somewhat hiding his flushed cheeks as well. Ani started laughing. Yamamoto looked at her in surprise.

"What?" he asked. Ani shook her head and wiped at her eyes again.

"Nothing, it's just that you're dad's so nice. He reminds me of my dad a little bit." Yamamoto glanced at Ani, unsure how to respond, and unsure if she would start crying again.

But when Ani noticed him looking at her she gave him a reassuring smile, as though she could tell what he was thinking. Yamamoto smiled back, silently thanking his dad since it seemed that the little incident had cheered Ani up somewhat.

"Hey, Ani-chan, can I ask you something?" Ani tensed slightly, but nodded, "Well, I was just wondering if you wanted to take a bath is all. Since it looks like you haven't had one for a while."

Ani stared at him a bit, then smiled softly, somewhat relieved. "That sounds really nice right now. Thanks for offering by the way, I really need to get clean and get rid of all these layers of dirt I've built up." She demonstrated her need to bathe by running a hand through her hair. Ani frowned when they became tangled once more. Yamamoto laughed at the brunette's expression.

"All right. If you want we can wash your clothes meanwhile if you leave them in the hamper and put it in the hallway," Yamamoto asked. Ani frowned.

"Won't it take too long, though?" She'd be done before her clothes were even done drying...

"What? You're clothes? It'll be fine! We have super-washing-machines. Your clothes will be finished long before you're done with your bath."

"Huh..." Ani still wasn't so sure, but she didn't want to start arguing over the efficiency of washing machines. Yamamoto's face lit up as though he remembered something.

"Oh, right, the bathroom's down the hallway to the left, so you can go when you feel like it. There's towels in there, and a lock on the door as well in case you want to use it," he glanced at the door, "hmm...I'm going to go talk to my dad really quick, then I'll be back to get your clothes, okay?"

"Yes, thank you, Yamamoto," Ani smiled. Yamamoto departed with a small good-bye and his trademark smile, leaving the smiling girl alone on the bed.

The brunette's smile dropped, then rubbed her forehead in frustration and sighed. What had she gotten herself into? She definitely wasn't planning on staying at a strangers' house for a few days.

Ani groaned as she stood up, then made her way out to the hallway. She walked down further, peeking through each room until she finally came across the bathroom. She could feel herself trembling with excitement just at the thought of taking a shower and being clean.

Ani opened the door, paused at the scene in front of her, then proceeded to smack herself when she took it in. Once again her ignorance of the Japanese culture had gotten the best of her. She'd forgotten that Japanese showers were hand-helds and only consisted of a small stool. They weren't even closed off like the showers she was used to.

Ani grimaced. It would probably be as good a time as any to try it out. Bathing the Japanese way, that is.

She closed the door, walked over to the bathtub and leaned into it, trying to figure out how to turn on the water. It wasn't as though baths were new to her, Ani was just used to taking showers a lot more.

Ani twisted the knob to the left and yelped when water gushed out of the faucet with the force of a fire-hose. She spluttered as the water rebounded off the tub and pelted her in the face. She managed to put her hand on the knob and twisted it right so the flow of water was softer.

Wiping at her face, Ani knelt down and stuck her hand in the running water to test the temperature. The water was gradually warming under her touch, but it would be a while until it became warmer. She stood up and moved towards the cupboard, looking for a towel.

Now that she was alone she could consider her options. It was dangerous for her to stay in one place for too long, but Tsuyoshi and Yamamoto were being very generous taking care of her. It would be petty to just run out on them. But it would be crueler to bring them into her troubles.

She couldn't burden them with that. It would be better if she left as soon as she could. Then she'd continue to live a life on the run. It was for the best.

The brunette pulled out a blue towel and gently set it down on the counter, then walked back over to the tub. It was about halfway full, so she twisted the knob to the right stopping the faucet. Ani stuck her hand in and sighed as the perfect temperature sent shivers up her arm.

Ani slipped out of her clothes and looked around for the hamper Yamamoto told her about. She dumped her clothes into it, then placed it into the hall, opening and closing the door at record speed. She was sure - well- hoped, that was what Yamamoto wanted her to do.

She lowered herself into the tub and practically purred as she melted into its warmth. Maybe baths weren't so bad after all. She'd have to tell Ira and Felice about this when she got the chance.

Ani's eyes widened in surprise and she knocked her forehead with her fist angrily. Why was she thinking like that? She had to forget about them. She couldn't see them anymore even if she wanted to.

Ani couldn't help the sudden sobs that came out and racked her body. She knew she couldn't, but she wanted to go home. She wanted to see Ira, Felice and Trist, and especially her father. She even wanted to see Marco, but with the way things were he'd probably attack her the minute he saw her.

Ani hugged herself. Why? Why did her dad have to choose her?

XxXxXxX

Outside in the hallway, Yamamoto had gone back upstairs to see if Ani had gone to bathe, and when she wasn't in his room he moved on towards the bathroom. He noticed the clothes hamper on the ground and bent down to pick it up.

Yamamoto was about to turn and go when he heard sobbing coming from in the bathroom. He stopped in his tracks and listened. Was that Ani?

He pressed his ear up against the door to hear better, and his suspicions were proven correct when he heard Ani's sobbing as clear as day. He frowned. Why was she crying again? He reached up for the handle and was about to turn it when he realized in time just what he was about to do.

He pulled his arm back, and face a little red, started walking back down the hall with the hamper in his arms. Whatever it was, Yamamoto was determined to figure out the reason. He scowled, trying to direct it at whatever was causing Ani's misery, no one could cry like that unless there was a good reason behind it.

XxXxXxX

"Where were you, Baseball-Freak? You're fucking slacking in your duties as the Tenth's Rain Guardian! What kind of shit are you trying to pull?" Gokudera slammed his fist on his desk and glared daggers at Yamamoto.

The teacher flinched at the sudden outburst, but relaxed when she realized the anger wasn't directed towards her this time. She still moved a little further away though. After everything that had happened yesterday she swore that she'd just leave Sawada and his group well enough alone. Gokudera was just too scary to mess with, and she valued her life too much. She'd adopted the policy of 'out of sight out of mind' when it came to their group.

Tsuna meanwhile glanced at Gokudera nervously. He himself wasn't that upset over Yamamoto haven not shown up, but Gokudera took that as being disrespectful to the Tenth and obviously thought that he should defend it during their free time in class.

Tsuna -more like Reborn, he thought grudgingly- had made plans with everyone yesterday that they would go on their assigned patrols and then meet up at school at seven. It did worry Tsuna when Yamamoto hadn't shown up, but it didn't seem like such a major issue. Even Reborn reassured everyone not to worry. Either way, Tsuna was just glad that his friend wasn't hurt.

"Haha, sorry, I was helping out a damsel-in-distress," Yamamoto said, unfazed by Gokudera's fury. Tsuna stopped what he was doing, which was making paper airplanes. Since it was homeroom right now, he was having Gokudera teach him how to make the perfect airplane.

Gokudera had been more than happy to do so, and said that he had gotten a lot of practice when Shamal had tutored him for his fight against Belphegor. Tsuna was still confused as to how making paper airplanes counted as training, but it seemed to have somewhat helped so he didn't question it.

"What happened?" Tsuna asked Yamamoto who was currently making his own airplane. If there was trouble this close to them, then they'd have to be on guard. What with finding Anima, and many rival families in one place, there was bound to be some conflict and fighting. Tsuna shivered at that thought. He did not want to be fighting anyone.

Yamamoto noticed the look of worry on Tsuna's face and quickly reassured him.

"It wasn't anything too serious. It was just an American girl. I found her collapsed on the ground on my way home so I just brought her back to my house and she's going to be staying with us for a little bit until she gets back on her feet," his face became serious which was surprising to his two friends.

Yamamoto turned to face Tsuna, "Tsuna. Would it be okay if I focused on helping her out instead of searching for Anima. Would you mind? She just seems like she needs someone's help right now."

Tsuna nodded numbly. It wasn't easy for Yamamoto to become this upset. "Yeah sure. I don't mind. Do what you have to do." Tsuna was starting to wonder what had happened to this girl.

Gokudera looked at Yamamoto with a mixture of shock and disgust. "You brought an unconscious girl into your house?" Yamamoto's face instantly reddened. He fidgeted nervously, but decided to ignore Gokudera's comment. Tsuna stared at his desk in thought.

"Wait, you said she was American, right?" he wondered. Yamamoto nodded, and Gokudera immediately picked up on what Tsuna was suggesting.

"Ah! Could it have been that Anima girl? It might be her. All of the clues are leading to the same thing," he put on his glasses and hastily wrote down his thoughts on paper.

When Tsuna looked at the paper he noticed two stick figures on the page. "First off this girl's American, right?" He motioned to one of the stick figures with his pencil. "And that Anima girl is also American." He motioned to the other stick figure.

"Yeah..." Yamamoto knit his brows together in confusion as to where was he going with this.

Gokudera sighed in frustration at Yamamoto's slowness, but continued his explanation. "American tourists, well, tourists in general, are very, very rare in Namimori. So if it's an American girl it might be Anima, especially if she escaped whoever kidnapped her. Then it makes sense that she'd come to Namimori seeking out help from the Tenth." He drew a line connecting the two stick figures and leaned back in his seat a proud smile on his face.

"That's really good reasoning, Gokudera." Tsuna praised looking at the pictures Gokudera had drawn, and decided to ignore the comment about Anima seeking him out as the Vongola boss. Gokudera blushed slightly at the Tenth's compliment, but frowned in annoyance when Tsuna almost immediately turned towards Yamamoto. "And I can't believe you found Anima so quickly, too, Yamamoto. You're incredible."

Yamamoto laughed, "Thanks, Tsuna. Except there's one little problem."

Gokudera glared at Yamamoto. How dare he insult his reasoning, it was fool-proof. "Yeah, and what's that Baseball-Freak?"

"Well," Yamamoto pulled out his copy of Anima's picture and set it down on the desk. "Anima and the girl I helped yesterday are two completely different people. They don't look anything alike. The girl I helped has brown hair and brown eyes, not blonde hair and green eyes."

Gokudera stared at Yamamoto in shock. "What? But how's that possible? My logic makes perfect sense!" Yamamoto shrugged.

"It's probably just a coincidence," he stated. Gokudera groaned and laid his head on his desk.

"Man, and I thought we were so close, too," he grumbled. Yamamoto laughed, while Tsuna just smiled nervously. This mission was turning out to be a lot tougher than he thought it would be. He kind of hoped that another family would find Anima instead of them so they'd live normally for as long as they could.

"Tsuna," Tsuna tensed then turned towards the somber voice to see Enma standing there with a concerned expression on his face. "Is everything okay?" he asked, Tsuna blanched.

"Y-yeah, everything's fine, Enma," he laughed nervously waving his hands frantically. He didn't want to pull Enma into his family's affairs. Enma's expression tightened, but he didn't give anything else away.

Tsuna could tell that he didn't believe him. And he didn't need his Hyper Intuition to tell him that either.

"All right then, Tsuna, if you say so," Enma murmured, "Just...just remember that we'll be there for you if you need help." Tsuna nodded. He knew Enma was talking about his family. Somewhat satisfied, Enma walked off, and stopped to ask the teacher something. She just smiled and nodded quickly.

Tsuna groaned and laid down on his desk. He could just tell that Enma wasn't going to leave this alone.

Wait! If he said that he didn't want to bring Enma into his family's problems then wasn't that the same as acknowledging the Vongola as his family? He grabbed at his head and ran his hands through his hair with frustration. He just couldn't win, could he?

Gokudera was watching Tsuna quietly. "Why didn't you ask Enma if he could help, Tenth? I'm sure he and the others could help a lot with the search." Tsuna sighed and looked back up at Gokudera.

"I know. It's just that-" he looked to see if Enma was near, but panicked slightly when he didn't see him in the class anywhere, " - I don't want to trouble him, is all." Gokudera nodded understandingly, and leaned back into his seat. Whatever the Tenth's decision was, he'd support it one-hundred percent, bombs a-blazing.

A soft voice interrupted Tsuna's thoughts again, "Tsuna-kun?" Tsuna turned and tried to keep calm when he saw that it was Kyoko, whom he had a crush on for a while now. Her best friend Hana was standing beside her while, surprisingly, looking somewhat more serious than usual. Chrome was slightly behind them, and was looking at the floor shyly.

"Y-yes, Kyoko-chan?" He punched himself mentally. He sounded like such an idiot! Kyoko didn't notice his nervousness, though, but Hana just smirked knowingly.

"Well, I heard what Yamamoto-san was saying about the girl he helped yesterday. And Hana, Chrome-chan, and I thought that we'd help her out, too. She probably needs some girls to help her, right?" Kyoko was looking at Yamamoto while she said this.

"Yeah..." he murmured, then hid his face on his desk as it reddened all of a sudden. He'd accidentally walked in on Ani while she was changing yesterday, and it had been really awkward. Gokudera looked at Yamamoto suspiciously, while Tsuna was just confused as to why he was blushing. Hana moved towards Yamamoto and slammed a hand on his desk to get his attention. He looked up while still keeping his face partially hidden.

"So you know what needs to be done, right? We'll be coming over to your house later today so we can meet her. It wouldn't do to leave a helpless girl in the hands of stupid guys like you three," Hana growled. Kyoko just smiled innocently, while Chrome glanced at them nervously. Tsuna wondered if she thought they were irresponsible as well. Gokudera slammed his fist on his table.

"Hey! How dare you insult the Tenth! He's more than capable of taking care of someone unlike Baseball-Freak over here!" he snarled, jabbing a finger towards a still blushing Yamamoto. "Besides, I don't need you to fucking lecture me because I never agreed to help out some random chick! It's not my problem. If you want to help her out then just go fucking do it already and don't drag us into your problems."

Hana looked like she was about to strangle Gokudera, but managed to keep it together, and instead of continuing the argument stormed off muttering something about stupid, monkey boys.

"We'll meet you after class, then, Yamamoto-kun," Kyoko said, then smiled and waved goodbye pulling Chrome behind her as they followed after Hana. Chrome turned her head back towards the boys.

"I'll be going then, Boss," she mumbled, then disappeared as the three girls left the class. Yamamoto sighed and scratched his head anxiously.

"I hope my dad doesn't get the wrong idea with all of these girls at my house."

XxXxXxX

Marco frowned at his father who was currently pacing furiously around the room. It was times like this that Marco wished that he could finally carry out his plan once and for all. Then he wouldn't have o worry about sneaking around his father's back, and things would finally go his way.

"Father, please stop pacing around like that. It's annoying, and it's not going to bring Ani back and you know it," Marco growled. Martin stopped where he was standing, and gave his son a look before finally taking a seat at his desk.

"I'm sorry, Marco," he croaked, then slumped in his chair, "I just don't know what to do anymore. There haven't been any new leads on Ani's whereabouts at all. It's like she just disappeared."

Marco opted to keep silent, choosing instead to watch his father in this rare showing of his weakness. He clenched his hands together impatiently. Now would be a good as time as any, but these things, he knew, had to be done delicately.

So instead, Marco walked over to his father and placed a hand on his shoulder. Martin looked up to see a reassuring smile on his son's face.

"Father, don't worry about it anymore, all right? I'll go speak with Belleza and the others to see what we can do while _you_ get some rest. Staying up for three days in a row is not good for your health." Marco paused then smiled wryly, "You know what Ani would say about that anyways."

Martin nodded and smiled softly. "Yes. She always was one to worry about others rather than herself."

"Is," Marco corrected. Martin inhaled sharply and rubbed at his eyes.

"Yeah, is. You're right, Marco. I do need to get some rest. I can't start thinking that way." Marco nodded in approval. Martin stood up then faced his son. "Marco, when you go to see the others I want you to relay this message to them as well."

"What is it?" Marco asked. He scanned his father's face to try and see what he was thinking.

"I know I ordered everyone to stay here, but now I realize that I was just being selfish and paranoid. Tell everyone that you can all head out to Japan to look for Ani as soon as you can." Marco nodded, but really he was trying to contain his excitement. It was almost too easy!

Marco started to turn, but suddenly remembered something very important that he had to do. "Oh! Father, here," Marco turned back around while pulling a small bottle out of his pocket.

"What is it?" Martin asked, grabbing the small bottle. He examined it, but there was no label on the bottle so he waited for Marco's explanation.

"It's just a little something to help you get to sleep," Marco said. Martin popped the cap off, gave it a whiff then took a tentative sip. His face scrunched up.

"Whoa! That's strong stuff," he took another sip, "But it's good. Thanks, Marco." Marco nodded.

"I'll be going then, Father." And with that Marco left the room briskly leaving his father alone in his study. As he walked he couldn't help the smirk that slowly appeared on his face. His father was such a fool.

It was a hindrance to Marco's plans when Martin forbid everyone but his subordinates from searching for Ani in Japan. He was worried that he'd lose more of his family that way, which was absolutely ridiculous. Martin was just an extremely paranoid man.

"Marco!" Marco grunted in surprise as he felt somebody glomp onto his arm.

"Belleza," Marco greeted, seeing teal eyes looking up at him adoringly. Said person snuggled into Marco's arm while tightening her grip on him at the same time.

"I missed you so much, Marco," Belleza purred, "I _hate_ hanging around with Medio and Orrore. They always ignore me." Marco chuckled and caressed her face.

"Come walk with me, Belleza. We have much to talk about," Marco moved forward and Belleza obediently followed, keeping a tight grip on his arm.

"Was your talk with your dad successful, Babe?" Belleza asked, while pulling down her dress which had ridden up somewhat.

"Yes, now that Martin's realized we won't be able to find Ani without us going, we'll be able to proceed with our plan. It's very convenient."

"Wait. He took back his orders for us to stay here?"

"Yes, it's very nice isn't it?"

"It is, but...are you going to Japan with us, or are you going to stay here to do some work?"

"I'm going to stay here for awhile, but once I have things under control here I'll go to Japan. Especially if Ani hasn't been found yet. I still need to try the dream jump before we do anything too hasty."

"Don't worry, Marco. I'll find Ani and then bring her back even if I have to resort to force. Maybe that'll teach that little punk a thing or two," Belleza growled, "I still don't understand why we can't just get rid of her once and for all. I'm sure Orrore wouldn't mind taking up that offer."

Marco sighed, "Yes, I know, Belleza. But...I think Ani knows how to open _that_," Belleza looked up at him with surprise, "and that would be very useful. So we have to bring her back, especially since no matter how many times I've tried I haven't even been able to budge the dang thing at all. It's really annoying."

Belleza pursed her lips. "But, are you sure she knows how to open _that_? It'll just be a waste of time if we bring her back and she can't do it." Marco's eyes flashed.

"Are you suggesting that I don't know what I'm doing?" he glared at her. Belleza merely frowned and flicked some of her hair out of her face. If there was one thing that Marco loved about Belleza, it was that she knew how to take a stand against him. He had to admit, he was somewhat of a masochist when it came to her.

"That's not what I meant at all, Marco," she grumbled, "I just want you to claim your position as boss as quickly as possible is all. Besides, what if another family finds her first, and they decide to help her out? That would be bad for us as well."

"We don't need to worry about that. I made sure to supply false pictures for the letters that were sent out. It should work since Father never let Ani attend meetings. When it comes to what Ani looks like, the world is ignorant. That should give us plenty of extra time to get things in order." Belleza smirked and leaned against Marco.

"You're such a smarty, Babe," she cooed. Marco smirked and stopped walking. Belleza immediately followed suit and looked up at him quizzically.

Marco wrapped his arms around Belleza's slender figure and pulled her close, a smile adorning his face. "Have I ever told you how much I love you?"

Belleza looked up at him through her eyelashes, "You might have forgotten to mention it," she joked trailing her fingers up his chest and then began playing with the collar of his shirt. "You've been so busy lately, that it's just not fair. Don't you think I miss you?" Marco pulled her closer.

"Hmm, I guess I have some catching up to do then, don't I?" Marco whispered against her lips, then pulled her closer so that their lips connected. Belleza moaned into the kiss and trembled as Marco ran a hand along her arm. He broke the kiss, and whispered something into her hair. A blush spread its way all across Belleza's face, and she allowed Marco to lead her away.

As they continued down the hall, they remained completely unaware of the pair of eyes that had witnessed the whole scene.

"Those bastards...I have to go warn Felice and Trist," and those eyes quickly disappeared into the vast corridors of the building.

* * *

><p>I had such a hard time trying to decide what Ani should call Yamamoto's father, and when I went back to the manga to see what they called him they only referred to him as Yamamoto's dad, and Yamamoto only called him Pops or Dad, which didn't help too much either. So I just decided to have her call him Tsuyoshi, sorry if it seems a little OOC.<p>

I'm still trying to get the hang of writing in the characters' personalities, so sorry for any OOCness. I'll try to work on it. I'll also try to update again before my break ends, which is about one week. Once again I thank you for your patience and reviews are nice for motivation and improvement.


	3. The Second Day

Hey everyone! Sorry, I've been lazy. I promised to update at the end of my break, which was Monday, but I had such awful writer's block! I just need to get the ideas pumping and the updates will be quicker.

Disclaimer: Amano Akira owns KHR.

* * *

><p>Ani was sitting in a chair and watched Tsuyoshi as he chopped away at some fish (she couldn't remember what kind) that had the misfortune to be her lunch. The brunette pushed against the table's surface with her finger absentmindedly and looked at the man on the other side with slight annoyance.<p>

Even though she'd told Tsuyoshi that she wasn't hungry he wouldn't drop it once he'd heard her stomach growl. He'd immediately whipped out a knife and expertly carved into a fish that he'd taken out from the ice box to make some sushi for her saying how she needed to build up her strength.

Ani couldn't find an excuse for that and just quietly sulked in her seat as she waited for the food. Truth be told, she was hungry, she just didn't want to impose on Tsuyoshi anymore than she already had. And of course, Ani could tell that he somehow knew what she was thinking which added on to his stubbornness to take care of her.

Although, since Yamamoto had school to go to, Ani had really gotten to know Tsuyoshi a lot better throughout the day. He really was a nice person, and it was nice hearing stories about himself and Yamamoto.

Ani had guessed that Yamamoto did a sport, but she didn't think that it would be baseball. She was expecting something more like -what was it- kendo. It just seemed like it would suit him better. Tsuyoshi's restaurant was very nice as well, although there was nobody around since it was closed. Ani wondered why, but she didn't feel like bothering Tsuyoshi about it.

Ani laid her head down on the table so that she could still see Tsuyoshi attending to the fish while taking a chance to rest her head as well. The brunette thought back to the events prior to today. After she'd bathed she'd found her clothes, all cleaned and folded, in the hamper at the bathroom door when she'd opened it.

It was a big surprise for her because she'd never really expected her clothes to be finished before her. Maybe they did have super machines, or whatever Yamamoto had called them. Ani silently cursed the Japanese for their advanced technological innovations. Then there was that little incident with Yamamoto when she had been changing, but she really didn't want to think about it right now.

She glanced at Tsuyoshi, who was busy slicing at the fish. "Hey, Tsuyoshi?" she asked.

"Hn?" he answered while still slicing at the fish, then tossed away some of the bones and fatty parts.

"Well, I was just wondering if you have any hobbies? Since all I've seen you do today is work in the restaurant. I was just curious," Tsuyoshi paused mid-stroke, and when he remained like that for a minute Ani suddenly worried that she had offended him somehow. "Um, Tsuy-"

"You know, Ani-chan," he turned around so that he was facing her. "I used to be such an active guy when I was younger. I played so many sports, but kendo was always my favorite. I was in so many clubs that I was known as 'Busy Tsushi*'. It's kind of ironic since my favorite food has always been sushi." Ani giggled at the pun.

"But, once I graduated from high-school, started my own life, got a wife, had a son, it became a lot harder to do much anything anymore. Especially when my wife died...I couldn't just go out and leave little Takeshi at home all by himself while I went out to do adult stuff. That's not very responsible, you know, and I didn't have the money to hire a nanny. Besides, as I spent time with him I realized that I wanted to be the one to raise him. I didn't want some random stranger raise my son. So I finally managed to open up this restaurant. That way I could still work and take care of Takeshi. Now, my hobby is just being a good father to Takeshi and making sushi. It might not sound very fun, but as long as Takeshi's happy I'm happy."

Ani, who had been listening quietly and attentively, nodded and stared at the table in thought. Memories of her father began pooling in her head. She smiled, and looked at Tsuyoshi, who had turned back to cutting up the fish.

"You're a great dad, Tsuyoshi," Ani said. But before he could reply someone called from the front of the restaurant.

"Yo! Dad! I'm home!"

"Ah, Takeshi! We're in the kitchen," Tsuyoshi turned towards Ani and placed his hands in front of his face like he was praying, "Ani-chan, please don't tell Takeshi about what I said. I don't want him getting the wrong idea, and that boy is too kind for his own good. He'll end up feeling guilty."

Ani nodded "Sure." Tsuyoshi smiled gratefully then went back to the fish. Yamamoto appeared in the doorway then grinned at Ani when she looked at him.

"Hey. How are you feeling Ani-chan?" He walked over to the table and set his stuff down.

"I'm okay," she replied. "Thanks." She smiled back at him.

"That's good." He reached over and ruffled her hair. Ani let out a squawk of protest and began smoothing down the parts of her hair that were sticking up. "So, Dad, I hope you don't mind but I brought over some friends that wanted to meet Ani-chan." Ani's eyes widened and she glanced up at Yamamoto incredulously. What!

"That's fine with me. It's a good thing you came home early. Now I can make food for everyone else, too...How many friends did you bring anyways?" Tsuyoshi tilted his head in thought. Just then a stream of people came in through the door all talking excitedly.

"Ah~ I wonder what she looks like?" Ani's heart started pounding in her chest. What was she so nervous about? Yamamoto's friends couldn't be that bad could they?

"Bwahahaha! Lambo-san will give her candy as a welcome gift!"

"That's so nice, Lambo-san."

"Annoying brat. Why'd we have to bring him along? He's giving me hives."

"I'll give her some of my poison-cooking cake as a gift as well..." Oh god. How many of his friends did he bring!

Ani cringed as the number of people in the room suddenly increased. She held her breath and tried inching underneath the table hoping that maybe if she stayed quiet they wouldn't notice her.

But as luck would have it, they all noticed her the instant she moved. Then she was surrounded.

"Hahi! You're so cute!" The brunette cried as she clasped her hands together. "My name's Miura Haru by the way."

A strange cow boy with an afro filled Ani's hands with grape candies. "Here! Lambo-san will give you candy! Will you be my subordinate now?"

"Hi, my name is Sasagawa Kyoko. It's very nice to meet you." A girl with short, orange hair smiled at Ani warmly.

"Kurokawa Hana. It's nice to meet you." A serious-looking girl with long, dark, wavy hair said.

A really pretty older woman placed a cake in front of Ani. "I'm Bianchi. Try out my cake. I'm sure you'll like it." Ani stared at the cake in confusion. It looked like a cake, but most cakes wouldn't smoke and have goop oozing out of it would it?

The girl called Kyoko turned behind her. "Chrome-chan, I-pin-chan, you guys say hello, too!"

A girl with purple hair appeared with a young girl in her arms. "H-hello. My name is Dokuro Chrome. It's nice to meet you." She looked at the ground shyly. The girl in Chrome's arms waved at Ani shyly.

"I I-pin. Nice meet onee-chan." At Ani's confused look Chrome took it upon herself to explain.

"S-she's not very fluent in Japanese," she said, hiding her face behind I-pin's. I-pin smiled widely and then mumbled something Ani couldn't understand.

"Oh." Ani smiled and grabbed onto I-pin's hand. "Do you want to practice Japanese together then? Mine isn't very good either. I still need to get used to it."

Haru leaned a little closer so that she got Ani's attention. "Your name's Ani-chan right? Is it okay if we call you that?" she asked.

"Well, I guess...i-it doesn't really matter."

"Great! Now you need to come with us so we can go clothes shopping for you!" Haru grinned. Ani noticed that the circle of people around her seemed to close in somewhat.

"Shopping? But I don't have any money." Ani tried to keep the panic out her voice.

The way everyone was closing in around her made her feel like a wounded deer surrounded by a pack of hungry wolves. Ani tried to see if Yamamoto would save her, but the wall of people prevented her from seeing him. He either didn't know that she needed saving, or he was just being dense and didn't realize that she needed saving. It was probably he latter.

Bianchi flipped her hair. "Nonsense. We have more than enough money. Haru and Kyoko are willing to use money from their cake budget to get you new clothes. I'm also willing to use some of the money I've obtained from my job as well."

"B-but I'm someone you just met! Why would you do this for me?" Ani asked. It was nice of them to try and help her out, but she couldn't accept it. She had to lay low as best as she could. Even if they were Yamamoto's friends.

"Well," Kyoko began, "It's because you're Yamamoto-kun's friend, Ani-chan. So that makes you our friend as well, even if this is our first time meeting." Then she smiled so sincerely that Ani knew that she was telling the truth.

Ani smiled at all of the warm looks everyone was giving her. "I guess it's all right...if you don't mind."

"Not at all!"

They closed in on her a little more.

"Now..." Kyoko's eyes had a mischievous glint behind them. Ani yelped when Haru and Bianchi each grabbed one of her arms.

"Off we go!" Everyone shouted, except Ani who cried out in half a panic as she was swept off of the chair and dragged out of the restaurant into the unknown that was Namimori.

Tsuyoshi laughed nervously. "Did we just witness a kidnapping?"

Yamamoto laughed. "Maybe. I'm sure they're just playing."

"So how come you didn't go?" Tsuyoshi asked.

"Dad, I'd just end up having to carry everything, you know. Besides, they're shopping for girls clothes. I'd just look like some weirdo."

Tsuyoshi shrugged, "I guess...Wait! They forgot to wait for their food!" He ran out of the kitchen. "Everyone! You forgot your food! Come back!"

"Hmm..." Yamamoto walked over to the table where Ani had been sitting and looked at the cake Bianchi had brought. He knew from experience that it was no ordinary cake and was somewhat relieved that Ani had been taken before she tried it.

He picked it up and carefully disposed of it into the trashcan. He leaned against the counter and pursed his lips. What to do...

XxXxXxX

How did she keep ending up in such strange situations? Ani moaned as she looked at her reflection in the mirror that was supplied in the changing room. She couldn't believe she was actually wearing something like this.

"Are you done, Ani-chan?" someone called from the other side of the door.

"One sec!" she answered. She looked back at her reflection, and then taking a deep breath she opened the door. Everyone stopped talking and waited anxiously to see Ani, and once she stepped out completely they all let out cries of approval.

"Ah, you look so cute, Ani-chan!" Kyoko squealed. Ani blushed.

"I don't know why you're making me wear this stuff if we're supposed to be shopping for real clothes..." Ani mumbled.

"We can have fun at the same time!" Haru said, "Besides, Halloween's coming up and you need to have a costume for it. And what's better than a cat costume? Besides, it suits you."

"But..." Ani literally felt her body weigh down with discouragement. She couldn't say it, but she wouldn't need all of this stuff because she'd be leaving soon. She'd be gone by the time Halloween came around.

Halloween, huh. Has that much time passed already?

Ani was so absorbed in her thoughts that she didn't notice Lambo run behind her and pull at her tail, causing her to startle and cry out. "Haha! You look just like a cat, my subordinate!"

"Lambo-chan! Don't pull at it. If you tear it then we'll have to buy it," Haru chided. Lambo just ignored her and jumped up so that he was hanging from Ani's shoulder. He reached up and tried to touch the cat ears that were adorning her head. "Lambo-chan!"

"It's all right, Haru," Ani said and pulled Lambo into her arms who giggled, "I know just how to deal with kids when they get like this." She set Lambo down and held him so that he couldn't run away. Her gaze made him stop squirming.

"Hey, Lambo-chan, as your subordinate I have to warn you about the dangers of a clothing store. Do you know what happens to little kids who ruin things that they don't own?" Lambo shook his head.

"Well, when I was younger, I went to this one store that sold a lot of awesome things. There were clothes, accessories, shoes, everything you could think to find in a clothing store. But, when I was looking at some clothes I accidentally tugged on it too hard and the sleeve ripped. All of a sudden, two huge guys dressed in black suits showed up and they took me into a secret room. They told me that naughty children had to be punished. I tried telling them that I would pay for it, but they wouldn't listen." Lambo's eyes widened but he stayed quiet and listened attentively, his focus on Ani. Ani noticed that the others were listening to her as well.

"They pulled out a knife that was as long as my arm. Then they held out my arm with the hand that had torn the shirt. They told me that they were going to cut off my hand because I was a naughty child. But, my dad saved me before they could actually do it. After that, I was always careful to not tear anymore clothes, because then those evil men would come back and try to cut off my hand again. And that's why you have to be careful at stores and be a good boy, all right?"

Ani let go of Lambo, who's face was stark white, and stood petrified to the spot. I-pin walked over to Lambo and waved a hand in front of his face, but he didn't react.

Hana walked over to Ani, "Was what you said true, Ani-chan?" she asked in a disturbed tone. Everyone moved in a little closer to hear her answer. Ani just smiled and in a hushed tone so that Lambo couldn't hear answered.

"No, of course not. I just made that up so he'd behave himself even if it's for five minutes." Hana looked impressed.

"Wow, I didn't know kids could be so easily subdued." she said admiringly. Ani shrugged, then yelped when her cat ears slid down over her eyes. Bianchi clapped a hand on Ani's shoulder as she pushed the ears back on top of her head.

"I like how you think, Ani. I think you've got what it takes to be an extraordinary assassin."

"What?" Where did that come from? Wait...was she – but before Ani could think about it anymore Haru handed Ani her next outfit to change into. Except this time, it was really white, and Ani could see frills practically oozing off of it.

"Come on Ani-chan! We have so much to do and so little time! We want to see you- er, I-I mean, _you_ need to try on as many outfits as you can so you can see if you like it or not." And with that Ani ended up back in the changing room.

XxXxXxX

After a few more hours of shopping Ani finally realized something. She'd gotten a hint of it earlier in that costume shop, but now in this shop she was definitely sure of it. Especially with the squeals Haru and Kyoko kept letting out each time Ani tried on a different outfit.

They were using her as their own personal dress-up doll. Ani sighed and hit her forehead with her knuckles. How could she be so slow sometimes?

Hana and Bianchi were just as bad as Haru and Kyoko. When they weren't fawning over how cute she looked they would be browsing the aisles and would come back with twenty or more outfits they wanted her to try on. Although Hana would throw her a few sympathetic looks now and then.

Lambo had kept quiet ever since Ani told him that story, and Ani was starting to regret telling him about it. I-pin kept on teasing him about it, and whenever she brought him a shirt of some sort he would either pass out or run away crying, to which I-pin would give chase. It was very sad.

Ani was also starting to wonder how long she could hold out before she'd be completely exhausted from all of the shopping. It was only five-thirty, but Ani was about ready to hit the sack. Ani wasn't even sure how many stores they had gone through.

The shop they were in right now was very strange in a way. They only had one type of item, but with a large variety. Dresses. Lots and lots of dresses#. Any kind of dress you can think of they probably would have it. Ani had even come across a maid costume, which she then was eventually forced to try on.

What was up with the Japanese obsession with stuff like this? Ani was sure that she had never even seen a store like this growing up. It was scary that was what it was.

Ani only got a small respite when Haru, Kyoko, Hana and Bianchi got into a small debate whether she should try on the pink, frilly dress next, or the sleek and elegant, blue, silk dress. Ani was a little tempted to bolt and run, but when she noticed Chrome standing a little ways off, who seemed to be deep in thought, she decided to go talk to her. Oh, and it was also because she was still wearing the lacy, green dress that belonged to the store, so she couldn't leave even if she wanted to.

"Hey, Chrome," Ani greeted. Chrome startled, and made the motion to grab for something, but relaxed when she saw it was Ani.

"Oh. Hi, Ani-chan," she murmured.

"Why aren't you with the others? Are you feeling okay?" Ani asked.

"I'm feeling just fine, Ani-chan. I'm just not used to being around such lively people, so I'm at a loss for what to do sometimes." Chrome hugged herself and smiled sadly. Ani leaned against the wall and reflected on what she said.

"Huh." Ani chewed on her bottom lip nervously. She didn't know what to say now. "So, do all of you besides Lambo-chan and I-pin-chan go to the same school?"

"Well, besides Bianchi and Haru-chan, Kyoko-chan, Hana-chan and I go to Namimori Middle. Then there's Boss and the others, too."

"Boss? Are you guys in a club or something?"

"Erm...something like that, yes."

"That's so cool! I always wanted to be a part of a school club or sport, but my dad never let me since he was worried that something bad would happen to me if I did."

Ani smiled nostalgically about the time when she was in the sixth grade. She'd asked her dad if she could join the Tennis team, and all he did was freak out saying that she couldn't. She still did it, though, with Ira and Felice, and used the excuse of it being an after-school project.

"How is being in a club or sport dangerous, Ani-chan?" Chrome looked at her with her one eye, which was squinted in confusion.

"Huh? Oh, well, he's just the most paranoid father in the world, really. But that was only when I was younger. Now he's a lot more lenient about what I do."

Chrome hummed in understanding. "Yes. But even though it's fun hanging out with Boss and everyone else, I really miss my old school, and my old group."

"You moved?"

"No. I got kicked out." Ani gave Chrome a disbelieving look.

"You were expelled!"

"Oh, no, no!" Chrome chuckled softly. "It's just that Mukuro-sama and the others had to go on a trip, and Mukuro-sama sent me to Namimori."

Ani frowned. "It sounds like this Mukuro-sama ditched you."

"Oh, no!" Chrome grabbed onto Ani's arm, "Don't think badly of him! Mukuro-sama is absolutely wonderful. There's no one as kind, brave or charming as he is." She sighed dreamily.

"So, you have a crush on him," Ani teased, while beating down at a part of her dress that had poofed up annoyingly. Chrome blushed and looked down.

"Well, he did save my life..." Chrome whispered. Ani's eyes widened in surprise.

"What happened? If you don't mind...me asking." Chrome shook her head.

"I don't mind...See, I got into a car accident because I ran onto the road trying to save a cat. I ended up in the hospital under critical care, because I lost my eye and many of my organs," she placed a hand on her stomach, "I heard my parents talking about how they'd rather let me die than cut themselves up to give me an organ transplant. I was that unimportant to them. But Mukuro-sama managed to save me, and now I've been able to live a much happier life."

Ani stared at Chrome. She'd talked about that like she was talking about the weather. Somehow, Ani couldn't but feel some admiration for Chrome. She must be very strong to be able to go through something like that and still be able to smile. If that had happened to Ani she'd probably have broken apart just from the shock alone.

"Ah! Ani-chan!" Kyoko ran up to Ani excitedly, "We finally decided on something for you to put on so come back with us! You come, too, Chrome-chan! We need your opinion, too." And with strength that seemed almost impossible for someone as small as Kyoko to posses, she dragged both Ani and Chrome over to where the others were waiting. When they got closer Ani saw that Bianchi was holding up the pink, frilly dress. Oh, boy. She could already feel it suffocating her.

XxXxXxX

It was eight O'clock when Ani finally returned ho – to Yamamoto's house. Everyone had said their good-byes to her as they parted, all except for I-pin and Lambo who had fallen asleep in Haru's and Kyoko's arms respectively.

Ani's arms were full of all the clothes that the others had bought for her and she struggled to hold on to them as she went to go knock on the door. She waited a bit, and knocked again when there was no answer.

She bit her lip nervously and after much effort, managed to set all of her bags on the ground so that she could go look inside through the window. She pressed her face up against the glass, and cupped her hands around her head to help see, but all she could see was a pitch blackness inside. She let out a sigh and wiped off the circle of steam that her breath left on the cool glass. Were they asleep?

She went back to the front door and noticed a piece of folded paper that was sticking out from between the door and frame. Strange...she was sure that hadn't been there before. Hesitantly, Ani took it out and opened it when she saw that her name was written on the cover.

_Yo, Ani!_

_Sorry if you got scared by being locked out, but Pops and I had to go shopping for more supplies for the restaurant. We're running low on rice and tuna right now, so we'll be back later in the night. Don't worry though, Dad left a spare key under the frog statue near the back door so you can use it to get inside._

_Hope you had fun with Kyoko, Chrome and the others today. I probably won't be able see you till tomorrow in the afternoon since it'll be Friday and I have school then. So here's an early Good Morning! Well, I guess that's it for now. Oh, there's some sushi in the fridge in case you're hungry at all. I think that's everything._

_Good Night,_

_Yamamoto_

Ani giggled. That sounded so much like him. But he was right, she'd probably be asleep long before they got back. And she'd be sleeping in since she wasn't the one who had school. Sighing, Ani started gathering up her shopping bags and headed for the back door.

She started humming as she set her stuff down on the ground and bent down so she could pick up the frog statue that Yamamoto was talking- er, well, wrote about.

The wind whistled by and rustled the bushes and trees that were lined up between the buildings. Ani stopped to hold her hair as it fell in her face, and brushed it aside impatiently once the wind let up a bit. She picked up the key and juggled it in her hand just before gripping it firmly and placing it in line with the keyhole.

She pushed it in and twisted it to the right until she heard the tumblers within unlock with a click. Ani pushed the door open and began picking up her bags again when an intensified rustling in one of the bushes made her stop dead in her tracks.

Ani turned around to see what, or who it was, but once she did the rustling immediately stopped. She scanned the bushes suspiciously and quickly gathered up the rest of her bags, kicking in the ones that she wasn't able to grab properly. She cursed slightly when she got caught in the doorway, but once she got past the threshold, she quickly kicked the door shut behind her and turned the bolt, successfully locking it.

Panting slightly, Ani looked out through the peephole, but when she didn't see anything out of the ordinary she sagged against the door and sighed in relief. Ani began collecting her bags again, and making sure not to spill any of their contents began heading up to the guest room where she had slept in last night. The brunette wanted nothing more than to just collapse on the bed, snuggle under the sheets and sleep the night and the rest of the next day through. She was exhausted.

XxXxXxX

Irio wasn't so dumb. He watched the human female that smelled like freshly picked catnip as she climbed up the slope with her arms crowded with the weird material that was oddly fun to play with.

His tail twitched with annoyance. He wanted to be the one held by her, not those silly things that she was carrying right now. His nails clacked lightly against the tile floor as he moved so he could keep her in his sights.

Irio hoped that she would be surprised to see that he had gotten inside. It was when she had gotten stuck at the opening to the human's cave. He'd slipped through under her legs and immediately hid in a different room. It was actually thrilling to try and not be seen by her.

Yes, she would definitely be surprised. Then he would be able to see her surprised face. That'll be so much fun. His tail started waving back and forth through the air. He was a little tired, too.

He started climbing up the slope with the weird parts sticking out with each step he took. Why did human caves have to be so strange? But it was worth it if he would be able to be with her.

That human female that smell like catnip. It was a good scent. It made him happy and he felt like purring everytime he smelled it. It was absolutely intoxicating.

Irio followed the scent into a smaller cave where she was. She was on the elevated platform, and Irio could tell by how she was breathing that she was already fast asleep.

He had good ears. Yes, she'd be so surprised, but she'd like him because he's so smart and not dumb like those stupid cats that have fallen prey to the temptations of the human world. No, he's not dumb.

He paused at the edge of the platform, and in one fluid motion, he jumped up onto it so that he could finally see her face up close. The human female who smelled like catnip.

Irio curled up near her face and purred softly when her warm breath tickled his nose. Yes, he'd be able to be with her, and he'd help her and she'd help him. The human female who smelled like catnip. Such a nice smell.

*I just got the Tsu and shi from Tsuyoshi and put them together. I must admit, I surprised myself at how well that worked out. Tsushi...sushi. Busy Tsushi. Busy sushi. Get it! Yeah... it's horrible. I'll just go in the corner now...

#Oh wait! I've got another one. Lots and lots of dresses. Lots and lots of trains. Lots and lots of planes! Get it! ...(Sigh) Ok, now I'm done.

Well, Ani's cat costume...I'll leave it to your imaginations right now to what it really looks like. I'll explain it in later chapters since I'm planning to have them do something for Halloween, and she might wear the cat costume. But if you have any other ideas for a costume I'm willing to listen. Maybe I'll make a poll once I get enough ideas...

Oh. And don't tell younger kids scary stories just to get them to listen to you. It can be pretty traumatic for them, and can otherwise be known as bullying.

I just wanted to say thanks for reading. And I'm allowing anonymous reviews. So those that want to review without having a name to it can do it. Until then~


	4. Trouble in the Morning

Ugh. I just noticed that there were a bunch of grammar mistakes and the sort in the last chapter. In fact I noticed mistakes in earlier chapters as well. I'm so sorry about that. I'm still inexperienced with writing a story and I'll try to be much more careful when writing future chapters. Although there still may be some mistakes here and there. I'm only human, you know. Anyways, thank you all for sticking with me!

And here's a shout out to my first reviewer: Chrome Nagi Dokuro!

I'm really glad that you're enjoying my story so far. I was worried that a lot of people weren't really enjoying my story since there were no reviews. But it really motivates me to know that there's someone out there who likes my story. Thank you so much!

Warnings: Blood, slight torture, territoriality, and maybe a little bit of humor.

Disclaimer: I don't own KHR...Really, I don't.

* * *

><p>"<em>Come on, Ani! It's only dangerous if it malfunctions or if a piece breaks off. Anyways, it's very rare nowadays for a roller coaster to break down."<em>

"_It doesn't matter! There's still that risk of 'danger' so I'm not doing it!" Ani's grip on the fence tightened as Felice began tugging on her other arm._

"_Ani!" she whined, "Ira! Come help me get her to do this! She'll listen to you." Ira glanced over at the duo, sighed, then starting picking at her nails absentmindedly._

"_If she doesn't want to do it, then she doesn't want to do it. Don't force her, Felice," she sighed. Felice let out a squawk of protest, while Ani smiled smugly. "Although...I think that something like this shouldn't be too frightening. It's a little disappointing to see that someone who's supposed to be our leader is intimidated by something solely built for one's entertainment."_

_Ani glared at her sandy-blonde haired friend. "What's that supposed to mean, exactly?" Ira waved a hand dismissively._

"_Oh, nothing, nothing," she said, "I just thought that a certain _somebody _wouldn't be frightened of a ride that has less of a chance for fatality than being struck by lightning. Cowardice is a bad quality for leadership." Ani's eyes narrowed, then letting go of the fence she'd been holding onto, pointed a finger at Ira accusingly._

"_I know what you're trying to do, Ira. And it's not going to work this time." Ira smiled innocently._

"_Whatever do you mean, Ani_? _I'm just stating an obvious fact. It's not _really _directed at you."_

_Ani scoffed and crossed her arms angrily. "Yeah, right. I'll show you that I'm not scared of a stupid roller-coaster. Come on, we're getting on that dang thing." Ani stormed off towards the ride leaving Ira and Felice behind. Although, they shared a triumphant smirk before finally following after their friend._

_Ani's eyes narrowed as she remembered what Ira had said. She was definitely no coward. So what if the ride was over 400 feet tall? So what if right at the beginning of the ride there was a sheer drop that fell to about 150 feet before spiraling back upwards to 300 feet and left her feeling like she'd left her stomach behind? So what?_

_Felice was right. There was absolutely nothing to be afraid of. It was only her imagination. The real thing was probably a lot more mild than how she was imagining it. Yeah, that's right. There was absolutely nothing to be afraid of._

"Are you sure about that, Ani?"

_Ani stared in shock as the people around her started slowing down as though they were walking through syrup. When she turned behind her to see if Felice and Ira were all right, she stifled a cry of surprise when she saw them completely frozen in place, like statues. It was almost as though someone had taken their picture and forgotten to tell them that they didn't have to pose any longer._

_She made to move towards them when her right leg suddenly seized up and she fell to the ground with a grunt. Ani tried to stand back up, but her whole body seized up and she fell back against the ground as though her own body was against her. _

"Oh, Ani. It has been quite a while since we've last seen each other, hasn't it? Who would've thought that you'd run all the way to Japan. But no matter, although this game of hide and seek has been fun, it really has become quite annoying. You're going to come back home with me. We've been worried sick about you.**"**

_Ani shivered. There was only one person in the world who could invade dreams like this. She started struggling against whatever was causing her body to seize up, and almost cried when she felt her muscles start burning from the exertion. She began panting from the effort, but stopped when a pair of legs appeared from the side of her vision. Rolling over so that she was on her side, she looked up to see the face of her brother._

"_That's a little strange, don't you think, because the last time I saw you you tried to stab me in the back. Literally. I didn't think you'd actually be worried about me...Marco." Ani's light-brown haired brother scowled but quickly replaced it with a too sweet and innocent smile._

"That's where you're wrong, Ani. I've learned my lesson. Now I know that I shouldn't have tried killing you. I'm actually glad that I failed."

"_Why? Just because if anyone found out they'd completely shun and turn against you?" She growled, and closed her eyes momentarily as a wave of pain shot up her spine. Breathing heavily, she began fighting for control over her body again, and opened her eyes when Marco began talking again._

"No." _Ani paused and looked at him with slight curiosity, _"That's not something I have to really worry about. I'll have the family eating out the palm of my hands soon enough." _He held out his hand for emphasis, but then pulled it back when he noticed the glare Ani was throwing him. _"I don't really feel like explaining myself to you, though, so you'll just have to come along and see for yourself for what I have planned. It'll be a revolutionary event and I'll be in the middle of the whole thing."

"_No thanks, Marco. I'm not really interested,"Ani grunted when with one final burst of effort she finally managed to gain control over her body. She stood up shakily, and clutched at her chest in order to try and catch her breath. If Marco was surprised that she had managed to overpower one of his techniques, he didn't show it._

"So my baby sister has gotten a little stronger, huh? It won't matter though. I'm ten times stronger than you'll ever be, and you _are_ going to come back with me even if I have to use force," _he paused, then crossed his arms, a smirk on his face, _"Father's just _dying_ to see you, too, you know."

_Ani's blood ran cold, "What...What did you do to Dad!" Marco ignored her and walked over to where a little girl had been holding hands with her mother and father. They had been swinging her, and it seemed like she'd been laughing when she was frozen as her eyes were crinkled and she had a huge smile on her face. "Marco! What did you do to Dad!" Ani repeated, although her voice was threatening to break._

"Not much...yet. Let's just say...he's slowly losing the will to live. He's nothing without his precious...little...baby...girl." _He lashed out at the small girl and Ani stared in shock when cracks appeared all across her body and all that was left was a pile of dust. Ani felt her knees buckle underneath her, and she fell onto the ground. She covered her mouth to try and hold back the waves of nausea and tremors that suddenly racked her body as she stared at the pile of dust._

_Marco turned back towards Ani and smiled at her. Ani couldn't see any warmness behind his eyes whatsoever though. It was like the man standing in front of her now was an empty shell of her brother. Her brother couldn't be someone so cruel and full of malice. This had to be an imposter. He wasn't Marco._

_As if sensing her thoughts Marco walked over to his sister and knelt down so that he was at eye level with her. Ani was still trying to keep composed and didn't respond even as Marco grabbed her chin and held her so that she had no choice but to look at him._

"I am who I am now, Ani. And you can't change that. I grew up believing that we could all live as one big happy family, and then I'd eventually take up the role as Fortunata's boss. But imagine my surprise when after all these years Father tells me that he was choosing you instead. You, who can't even defend yourself much less others. It's pathetic that's what it is, and it goes against our traditions."

_Ani could feel tears sting at her eyes as she stared into Marco's, which were so much like hers it was like looking at her reflection. Marco traced a finger down Ani's jaw and let it rest against her neck where her vein was pulsing erratically._

"You know, if you come back I'm sure Father will get healthier. Orrore can make certain of that. Just tell me where you're hiding at, Ani. Let Belleza or Medio come get you and we can return to those happy days where the only care in the world was our studies. Come back, Ani. I don't want to hurt you. Just come back and we can go back to those happy days once again."

_Ani closed her eyes. His words were so tempting. She wanted oh so badly to return to those days where everything was so peaceful. Where she could lie on the grass and watch the sky with Ira, Felice and even Trist when he was feeling up to it. She wanted to go back to the days where she, Marco and Dad would go to the lake for late night swims and just have fun. She wanted to, but..._

_Ani opened her eyes and stared into Marco's eyes again. She wanted to believe him, but his eyes weren't matching with what he was saying. He really wasn't planning on keeping to his word...was he? She silently prayed that her dad and the others would forgive her with the choice she was about to make._

"_I won't go back with you, Marco," she said, and tears began flowing down her cheeks. "If I don't come back then you can be the boss. Isn't that what you wanted? I don't understand why you need to hurt Dad and everyone else. As long as they think I'm dead you'll become boss. Doesn't that solve everything?"_

"Except that Father won't believe you're dead unless they find your body."

"_Then why! Why do you want me to come back home? If you're worried that I'll come back then don't. I'll stay away. He'll make you boss eventually, so just don't hurt him." She was pleading now. Ani didn't want anyone to be hurt. That was why she left in the first place._

_Marco laughed. _"So naïve, Ani. I'm not worried that you'll come back as the hero and save the day. No...I need you to come back so then I can open Pandora's Box, as it were." _Ani's eyes widened and she scrambled away from Marco._

"_How do you know about that!" she cried, putting her arm up defensively. Dad had told her that the only ones who were supposed to know about that were himself, and herself, seeing as how she was supposed to take over. Marco stood up and sneered at her._

"Well, if you really want to know, I had Medio do some research on it after I came across it one day. It's very interesting because apparently the door can only open by using a special key of some sort. But I don't know what that key is."

"I tried looking into Father's mind, but I couldn't find anything about it. I guess he's shut off that part of his mind a long time ago since it was locked really tightly. Then, I assumed that you would know what that key is since Father chose you to replace him."

"That's why you're coming back with me. Once I get that power I don't just have to stop with being the boss of our family. I can go around the world and conquer all of the other mafia families. The ones with power and influence. I'll make it so that just hearing the name Fortunata will cause even the most feared man in the world to cower in fear!"

_Ani couldn't take it anymore. Bolting up she turned tail and ran the hell away, she just wanted to get far, far away from here. Marco was talking crazy talk. Pandora's Box wasn't what he thought it was. And to want to open it wouldn't benefit him at all. At best it would just give him a quick and painless death. There was a reason it was called Pandora's Box. Just thinking of that accursed thing made Ani want to gag._

_Ani flinched when Marco's laugh began echoing around the dream space. She gasped as the ground began shaking, and suddenly she was running along a long, winding pathway that seemed to continue on forever._

"You think you can run away, Ani? Don't you realize that once I gained entrance into your mind this was no longer your world? You can't hide so long as your dream is under my control!"

_There was a whooshing sound, and Ani cried out when a sudden gust of wind hit her from behind and knocked her feet out from under her. The wind's speed picked up before she hit the ground and she screamed as it started spiraling around her, carrying her upwards in the vortex._

_Ani tried to level out but the different directions of the wind pushing against her caused her to spin continuously and harshly in the air. She growled with frustration at her inability to control her body. What was she supposed to do!_

_Ani felt something sharp shoot across her cheek, and when she put her hand to her face it came away stick with blood. Her cheek was stinging from where the cut had appeared and Ani's eyes widened in horror. Why was she registering pain? This was supposed to be a dream!_

_Before she could register the attack she felt her arm burn where something else had cut her and had torn her sleeve in the process. She cried out in agony as cuts began appearing all across her body._

"That's right, Ani! Scream nicely for me now!"

_She tried to stifle the pain by pushing down on the cuts, but the pain would just intensify as more and more appeared. Just before she felt as though she was about to pass out from the pain the cuts stopped appearing._

_Ani would have cried with relief, but she was worn out and just hung in the air limply as the vortex slowly died down and she fell back onto the hard cement. She coughed, and her eyes widened with surprise when she saw blood splatter on the ground in front of her._

_This didn't make any sense. All of this pain felt so real. It wasn't like anything you would normally feel in a dream. Out of the corner of her eye Ani saw Marco walking towards her._

"How do you like it, Ani? I've gotten a bit stronger as well. Who knew that you could actually inflict pain on someone through a dream? It's a little something I discovered after some experimentation...So, are you going to come quietly, or do you need me to do some further persuading?"

_Ani closed her eyes. If only she could wake up, then she could get away from all this, from him. The way things were going on it seemed like it would be near impossible for her to wake up by herself._

"No? So I guess you do need some more persuasion after all." _Ani tensed as she prepared for more pain from his next attack. She was half-expecting Marco to create another tornado, but when she saw a bright light through her eyelids she opened her eyes and flinched back in horror._

"I told you that I didn't want to hurt you, Ani. But as long as this doesn't kill you then that's fine with me."

_He juggled the flames between his hands, and gently, as though he were dropping a feather, let go of them. The flames floated in the air and flickered as though the wind was pulling against them. Whatever happened next, Ani hoped that she would still able to wake up in Yamamoto's house somehow. She screwed her eyes shut as the flames shot towards her._

XxXxXxX

Irio was half awake when the great-ball-of-light-and-warmth began rising above the horizon. He yawned and stretched out, although he was careful not to bump against the human female. Not that it would really matter. He could tell by how heavily she was breathing that something as light as brushing against her would not be enough to wake her up. She was sleeping like a cat after a filling meal.

Irio licked at his paw and rubbed the side of his face with it. Then he lay back down and stared at the entrance to the human female's cave, where it was slightly open and remembered the events of last night.

He was sure that it had been late in the night, at the time when the cicada's and the night birds were at their loudest, that he had heard human males chattering away on the lower floor in their too deep voices.

Irio had been relaxing so peacefully that the sudden noise irritated him, and he had to control himself to not hiss out of anger. He didn't want to be found out yet.

Then it further irritated Irio when he heard one of the human male's footsteps growing louder, which meant that they were coming closer. Irio jumped off of the platform, and then slipped underneath it in order to hide. However he had to move aside some of the fun, crackly material which was in the way.

Whoever this human male was, he was lucky that Irio had to keep stealthy or he would already have let his claws loose and used them to scratch at his face and every other place he could have reached.

From underneath the platform, Irio saw the pair of feet that belonged to one of the human's at the entrance to the cave.

_Just turn and leave now, human_, Irio thought. But of course the world never works in the way a cat wants it to. Instead, the human entered the cave and walked over to the platform where the human female was. He could already feel his fur standing on end.

"So you fell asleep, huh, Ani-chan?" Irio heard him let out a soft laugh, "Well I guess hanging out with the others can be a bit tiring." Irio heard him yawn tiredly. Irio felt like he was about to spit up a hair ball if the human male didn't leave soon.

"Sweet dreams, Ani-chan." Finally.

Irio would've groaned with relief if he could have. He waited until he was sure that the human male was really gone before he slipped out from underneath the platform and jumped back on top of it, lying next to the human female...No, Ani-chan, once more. He just hoped that the human male wouldn't come back, because Irio wasn't sure he could keep his claws under control if his sleep were disturbed again.

That male, the way he talked to Ani-chan made him angry. He wasn't sure why, or what this feeling was, but he didn't like it.

Now, as the light from the great-ball-of-light-and-warmth shone in through the clear crystal wall, Irio purred as its warmth began to soak into his fur. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if they just kept sleeping like this.

Several minutes passed before he heard Ani-chan let out a groan. Was she waking up? Irio's tail began twitching excitedly.

She groaned again, but something sounded off. Irio watched her face with concern. Those sounds weren't of waking up. They were of agony. Of pain and fear. He placed a paw on Ani-chan's arm. Was she having a dream of being chased by dogs? Or had somebody stolen the lunch that she had worked so hard to find?

She remained quiet for a bit, and Irio was happy seeing as how her pain seemed to go away. But just as quickly as it went away she groaned again and began thrashing around. Irio yowled as he was sent flying, but he managed to land on all of his paws. He's not a cat for nothing.

He shook off his surprise and jumped back onto the platform, being careful to avoid Ani-chan's flailing limbs. He stood just above her head and placed both paws on her forehead in order to try and reassure her. But it didn't seem to help because he felt her skin start to burn under his paws.

This wasn't an ordinary dream. He sniffed at her head and hissed. There was an evil smell surrounding her that hadn't been there before. Where had that evil smell come from? Irio would tear it up with his teeth and claws for hurting his Ani-chan.

Then something happened that Irio wasn't expecting. He saw blood on her face. He panicked and retracted his claws. Had he scratched her? He couldn't have, he was being more careful then that. Then he noticed that she was bleeding on her arms as well.

What was going on? Now he knew that he wasn't the one doing this.

He pushed against her head again in order to try and wake her up, but he might as well have been scratching at a cement wall. It had no effect at all. Irio growled in frustration. What could he do!

Wait! He could...No, he didn't want to, but...He glanced at Ani-chan who's cries of pain were getting louder and more blood began flowing out her wounds. He had to.

He jumped off of the platform and bolted out of Ani-chan's cave. Using his nose, Irio sniffed out the human male that had entered her cave last night. He ran towards where his nose was leading him and entered the cave.

It was there on the other platform that Irio found the human male from last night. He felt the need to rub his face on his surroundings for some reason, but he pushed that aside and jumped atop the platform.

Then he jumped onto the human male's chest and bounced up and down, meowing all the while. He could hear Ani-chan's cries growing louder now. But it wasn't loud enough for the weak ears humans possessed. So, Irio finally decided to resort to extreme measures. He unsheathed his claws and dug them into the human male's chest.

That, combined with a scream from Ani-chan, finally woke him up. Irio bounded off of his chest at the same time he sat upright.

Irio growled with impatience when the human male just sat their rubbing his eyes and clutched at his chest. But when Ani-chan let out another scream, the sleep left his eyes and he looked as alert as a hunter cat when stalking his prey.

"Ani!" He jumped off of his platform and ran out of the room towards where Ani-chan was. Irio followed after him.

But right when he exited the cave he ran into another human male, an adult human male at that. He raised an eyebrow at Irio, but ignored him and they ran together towards Ani-chan.

XxXxXxX

A million possibilities of what could be happening raced through Yamamoto's head as he ran towards the guest bedroom where Ani-chan was sleeping.

Had a burglar broken into the house and attacked her? Or worse. Had a creep broken into the house and attacked her? He felt his feet carry him towards her room a little faster.

When he pushed opened the door he was surprised to see that the room was empty besides Ani who was thrashing on the bed. He ran over to her side and tried waking her up.

"Ani-chan! Wake up! You're having a night-Whoa!" He dodged what would have been a well-aimed kick to his manly area had he not moved out of the way in time. "Ani..." That was when he noticed the blood. And there was a lot of it.

He pulled back his hand and realized that his whole palm was coated in her blood. He snapped out his shock and grabbed Ani by her shoulders in an attempt to wake her.

"Ani-chan! Wake up! Please wake up!" he started shaking her, but it was futile. Whatever she was dreaming about, it was so awful that it was actually preventing her from waking up. Ani let out a gasp and laid still.

"Takeshi!" Yamamoto turned to see his dad in the doorway finishing tying the string around his robe. "What's wrong with Ani-chan?"

Yamamoto shook his head. "I don't know, but she's hurt, Dad! Call the ambulance or something!" Tsuyoshi glanced at Ani, saw the blood that stained the sheets, and didn't hesitate in running downstairs to get to the phone.

Yamamoto grabbed at his hair with frustration. What should he do?

There was a meow. Yamamoto turned and was surprised to see a cat standing in the doorway glaring at him. Wait? Glaring?

The silver cat bounded onto the bed and glanced at Ani worriedly. Then it faced Yamamoto and stared at his chest. Yamamoto looked down at his chest in confusion.

The only thing there was his Vongola Gear. Wait! His Vongola Gear! It could actually help!

"Kojirou, come out!"^ A swallow appeared in front of Yamamoto. "Kojirou, I need you to sprinkle some of your tranquility flames on Ani-chan. Try to get rid of whatever is hurting her, okay?" Kojirou chirped in understanding and flew over Ani.

It tilted its wing so that it flew in a continuous circle above her, after a second or so blue flames began coming off of Kojirou's wings and sprinkled down onto Ani. It truly did look like rain and even the mystery cat looked mystified at the sudden bird that appeared out of nowhere and was on fire.

All of a sudden, Yamamoto could sense Kojirou's confusion and struggle as he encountered whatever was hurting Ani. He let out a loud chirp and released the final amount of flames before going to rest on Yamamoto's shoulder.

Ani sighed, and Yamamoto could visibly see from how her features softened that Kojirou had done his job properly. "Thank you, Kojirou," Yamamoto nuzzled him underneath his beak with his finger. Kojirou chirped happily and leaned into Yamamoto's touch.

The next thing Yamamoto saw was that that cat was rubbing up against Ani's face as though he was trying to comfort her. When it noticed Yamamoto looking at it, it turned away then began rubbing up against the bedpost and even the bedsheets, all the while giving him a nasty glare.

What was that about?

XxXxXxX

Marco gasped and collapsed onto the floor. He grabbed at his chest as he took in deep breaths to help steady himself.

"Marco!" Belleza was at his side in an instant and cupped his face with her hands. "Are you okay, Babe? You're not hurt, are you?" Marco shook his head and placed his hands on top of hers to calm her down. The light from the lamp was reflecting off of her hair so that it looked like there were hundreds of shades in each strand. It was beautiful.

"I'm fine, Belleza. Ani was just a little bit stronger than I expected," he paused in thought. "Although, I felt this other strange power as well. It made me feel weaker. I don't think it was Ani though. She shouldn't be able to do something like that."

"She found someone to help her?"

"Maybe. I don't know. It just felt desperate, like it was just trying to put me out, not hurt me." Belleza sighed and tilted back so that she was sitting on her bottom.

"That doesn't make sense," Belleza frowned. "How can something put you out and not hurt you?"

"I don't know! It just did, okay," Marco crossed his arms angrily and scowled at Belleza. Belleza sighed and crawled over to him.

"Look, I'm sorry, Babe. I was just scared. You looked like you were in so much pain, and I don't want to think about what could have happened if you had gotten hurt," Belleza's voice sounded like it was on the brink of breaking.

Marco laughed scornfully. "I'm not weak, Belleza."

"I know. But that doesn't mean I still can't worry for you." Marco smiled tiredly and took Belleza into another kiss. She moaned into his mouth, but before they could get into it, an awkward cough sounded out from behind them.

Marco pulled out of the kiss, and Belleza glared at the man who had interrupted the moment they were having.

"Sir, I'm sorry to interrupt and all. But I need to know if you were able to find anything out," Medio pushed his glasses up his nose and began typing away on his laptop, "You know, such as where Ani's hiding at?"

"Ah," Marco stretched out onto the ground and used Belleza's lap as a pillow. She took that chance to start playing with his hair. "Yes...I managed to get one thing out of Ani. She actually put up a pretty good fight, but I got something in the end anyways. Well, all I got was the name of the place she was hiding at...Namimori. That was all I got. But I think that's good enough for you to go off of, isn't it, Medio?"

"Already on it, Sir," Medio replied, typing away at his laptop. Marco sighed and closed his eyes, enjoying the feeling of Belleza's hands running through his hair. Even though he failed in bringing back Ani through her dream, they were one step closer to figuring out where she was in Japan.

XxXxXxX

"See! I told you they were plotting something," Ira hissed at her two friends. The darkness from their surrounding, and Felice's dark skin prevented Ira from seeing her expression clearly, but she could tell that she was having an internal struggle in her mind. Trist, however was always hard to see because he had dark hair and always wore dark clothes.

"But...they were talking about how to find Ani, not how to hurt her!" Felice whispered, her voice quivering a little.

"You heard what Marco said, didn't you!" Ira replied hotly, "He said he _fought_ her. Why would he need to fight her if they were on the same side?"

"Maybe he meant something else," Trist said, bored.

"He didn't!" Ira half-shouted, then covered her mouth when she realized how loud she had been. Making sure that Marco's group hadn't noticed them, she motioned for Felice and Trist to follow her.

When she was sure that they were far enough so that she could shout and still not be heard she continued what she was saying earlier. "Look. I've known Ani _and_ Marco since they were little kids. They never fought. And when they did, they would always say that they got into an argument, not a fight. So Marco meant what he said. He actually fought her."

Felice looked like she was about to burst into tears, while Trist actually managed to look somewhat worried.

"W-we need to warn Master," Felice finally said, "If they are indeed plotting something then he needs to know." Ira shook her head.

"It's too late. I think Marco did something to him, because Master wasn't letting anyone see him. It's best that we leave as soon as possible and bring Ani back safely before Marco can get to her."

"I agree," Trist frowned, "but how will we be able to leave without alerting them to our plans?"

"I can take care of that," Felice sniffed, "but I'll need a day or two in order to make it work. It should be fine since we'll need at least a day to prepare to leave." Ira and Trist nodded.

"All right then. You guys know the plan. Prepare to leave in two days, three days tops. And we'll meet up at the secret spot, okay?" Felice and Trist nodded. "All right. Off to Namimori."

XxXxXxX

Tsuna had woken up feeling like something awful had just happened. He wasn't sure what it was, but his Hyper Intuition had been bothering him so much to the point that he couldn't sleep anymore. He'd actually woken up at seven in the morning. Way earlier than he normally would wake up at.

He could tell that Reborn would be somewhat surprised yet disappointed at the same time. Either way, Tsuna could only see it in resulting in being hit in the head with a blunt object of some sort.

So he got ready for school as quickly as he could, while being careful not to wake the members of his household. With extra time, Tsuna actually managed to grab two slices of bread instead of the usual single slice.

Maybe waking up so early wasn't a bad thing. It certainly was less stressful.

He stuck the bread slices in his mouth as he bent down to put on his shoes. He muttered a silent, I'm leaving, before opening the door and stepping outside.

Tsuna started munching on the bread slice as he walked towards the street. Being early also meant that he'd be earlier in walking to school. Which meant that he'd be alone. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad after all. He'd have some time to think and ponder about life.

Ah, who was he kidding. The only good thing he'd get from this was not being bitten to death by Hibari-san. But it would be nice to have a nice, peaceful and quiet wa-

"Good morning, Tenth!" Tsuna started choking on his bread in surprise. "Ah! I'm so sorry, Tenth! Here!"

Gokudera began pounding on Tsuna's back in an attempt to dislodge the rogue piece of bread that got lodged in Tsuna's throat. Tsuna finally managed to swallow the piece and took in a deep breath.

"Thanks, Gokudera," he coughed. Along with his throat, his back was sore and stinging from the 'help' Gokudera had given.

"No, problem, Tenth. Although, what are you doing up so early?"

"Hmm, my Hyper Intuition has been bugging me since earlier this morning. I couldn't go back to sleep, so I just decided to head out and go to school early." Tsuna glanced at Gokudera. "What about you? Why are you up so early?" Tsuna had a pretty good idea of what his answer would be though.

Gokudera's eyes lit up at the chance to impress his beloved Tenth. "Well, I was doing my morning guard watch, Tenth. I have to make sure that no assassins try to kill you during the night."

Tsuna smiled nervously, "Thanks, Gokudera. But, actually I was thinking that we should go over to see what Yamamoto is up to. That way we can walk with him the whole way instead of leaving him to walk all by himself." Gokudera frowned.

"I guess so..."

It was pretty silent as they walked towards Yamamoto's house. Except for his Hyper Intuition, which seemed to be getting stronger the closer they got to Yamamoto's house, it was a pretty nice walk. Tsuna scanned the buildings and houses as they passed by them.

It was strange how their layout seemed to be in a pattern. House, bush, tree, bush, store, bush, tree, bush, house. No matter which road they took this pattern remained consistent. He wondered if Namimori had been built like that on purpose or if it had just been a coincidence. Gokudera suddenly stopped, and Tsuna stopped to turn and look at him.

"What's wrong?" He asked. Gokudera pointed to indicate something in front of them.

"Look, Tenth..." Tsuna looked over to where Gokudera was pointing at. He was a little apprehensive since Gokudera looked freaked out, and what Tsuna saw was indeed shocking and scary. They had reached Yamamoto's house, but instead of the quiet that would normally exist in the morning, there was a group of people gathered in front of his house.

And there was an ambulance, with blue and white lights flashing in stark contrast to the somewhat dim light that the sun was giving out. Tsuna glanced at Gokudera, and they both ran the rest of the way to see what had happened.

Tsuna hoped that Yamamoto or his dad hadn't been hurt. He couldn't handle it if Yamamoto was hurt again. As Gokudera cleared a path for him through the crowd of people, Tsuna found that it was a little harder to breathe with each step he took. This anxiety was going to kill him. What happened? And why was his Hyper Intuition ringing alarm bells in his head.

They managed to break through the crowd of people just in time to see someone being carried out on a stretcher. He sighed in relief when he saw that it wasn't Yamamoto or his father. But he still felt some concern for the girl.

Wait. Was she the one who had been staying with Yamamoto these last few days? As she was loaded onto the ambulance Tsuna spotted Yamamoto standing in front of his house with his dad, who was talking to a police officer.

Tsuna ran over to him. "Yamamoto!" Yamamoto looked up in surprise and managed a weak smile at the sight of his two best friends.

"What happened here, Baseball-freak?" Gokudera asked. Way to be subtle, Tsuna thought grimly. Yamamoto just shook his head.

"I'm not really sure...I-I think Ani-chan was attacked, but I don't know by who, or by what. I managed to save her with Kojirou, but she still hasn't woken up. It...it was horrible." Yamamoto looked down at the ground grimly. Tsuna placed a hand on Yamamoto's shoulder reassuringly.

"Don't worry. I'm sure she'll be fine." Tsuna managed a smile. Yamamoto nodded, but it didn't look like he really believed it.

The back door to the ambulance closed shut with a loud bang, which startled Tsuna, who'd gotten absorbed in trying to comfort Yamamoto. And as the ambulance drove away, Tsuna couldn't help but think how scary it was that his Hyper Intuition seemed to be correct all the time.

* * *

><p>Omake (sort of):<p>

Since they had some free time, Tsuna, Gokudera, and Yamamoto decided to go to the library for some study time. And since there were computers in the library Yamamoto decided to go look up something that had been bothering him.

He excused himself from their study group and moved over to a seat where there was an empty desktop computer. He sat in the chair and moved the mouse around to try and get it to turn on. Tsuna noticed that Yamamoto looked a little confused and frustrated since he began banging the mouse on the counter-top.

Tsuna got Gokudera's attention and they both made their way over to Yamamoto.

"What's wrong, Yamamoto?" Tsuna asked, as he watched Yamamoto bang the mouse on the counter again.

"Oh," Yamamoto laughed, "I'm just trying to get the computer to turn on." Gokudera face-palmed.

"Baseball-idiot!" he snarled, "That's not how you turn on a computer!"

"Oh? Really?"

"Don't 'Really?' me! It should be common sense!" Gokudera reached behind the computer and pushed the power button that was located on the bottom left of it. The screen lit up and a little bar popped up showing that it was loading.

Yamamoto laughed again. "Wow. I guess it's true that you learn something new everyday, huh?" Gokudera just face-palmed again while Tsuna smiled nervously. Truth be told, he also had trouble turning on these computers and would usually just wait until someone was done if he wanted to use one.

"So, what is it that you wanted to look up, Yamamoto?" Tsuna asked trying to change the subject.

"Oh, well you know that girl that's been staying at my house the past few days?" Tsuna nodded. "Well, she took in a cat, and I don't know why but that cat completely hates me. So I thought I'd look up cat behaviors and the sort to see what I'm doing to make it hate me."

"Wait...Is it okay to have a cat in a restaurant with a lot of fish and other seafood?"

"Hmm...I don't know." Yamamoto laughed. Tsuna sweat-dropped. Gokudera looked grim.

"I know how it feels to be hated by a cat..." he glared at his belt Vongola Gear. He could already see Uri lunging at him with his claws extended out for the kill. His eyes full of anger. And then his claws would dig in and wouldn't let go. Gokudera shuddered, and Tsuna gave him a worried look before turning back towards Yamamoto.

"Oh. It's done loading."

"That it is," Yamamoto rolled the mouse across the counter and clicked on the icon for the internet. Google Chrome#.

"Looks like the Baseball-idiot finally got something right," Gokudera muttered. Once the internet popped up Yamamoto began typing in the search bar.

_-Cat behaviors-_

He clicked the enter button and waited as it loaded the search results. He clicked on the first link and waited for that to load as well. Gokudera growled angrily.

"This damn school has the slowest computers in the world. They should actually put an effort into maintaining them." Tsuna just nodded absentmindedly.

He was also interested to see how cats acted since he seemed to get on their bad side as well sometimes. Dogs, too. Maybe he would look them up after Yamamoto was done. Then he could probably get that dang chihuahua to stop chasing after him.

Yamamoto skimmed through the information until he came across some that seemed interesting and important to what he wanted to know.

_- Cats can communicate through scent via urine, feces, and chemicals in skin glands located around the mouth, tail, and paws. They also use scent in order to mark their territory. If another animal tries to get in the cat's territory, it will fight for the territory, or the cat will scare the animal off. Urine spraying is also a territorial rub up against furniture or doorways to mark the items as "theirs". When cats rub people, they are marking them with their scent, claiming them as "theirs"._ _- *_

…Yamamoto read through it again. Then again. And again.

"What!" he cried out in shock, accidentally startling both Tsuna and Gokudera. A librarian appeared from around the corner and shushed them. Gokudera glared daggers at her, and she stiffly disappeared to where she had come from.

"Jeez, what is it, Yamamoto? You scared me half-to-death." Tsuna complained. Yamamoto opened and closed his mouth like a fish out of water.

"I think that cat was trying to pick a fight with me...".

-The End-

* * *

><p>* I got this from Wikipedia. So these are not my own words. Credit goes to whomever (...whoever? I never can figure it out) wrote the article!<p>

^ When I wrote this I felt like it was a line out of Pokemon. "Come on out, Pikachu!" "Kijirou, come out!" Okay, I admit to it. I'm a nerd. T_T

# I just had to put Google Chrome for the browser Yamamoto used. I don't know if they have Chrome (heh-eh, Chrome) in Japan, but let's just say they do.

I also want to add I'm not an expert with cats so if I get a behavior wrong please don't get angry. I own a dog and birds, so a cat doesn't really fit into the equation. All that I really know is what I get off the internet.

I thought the Omake would help lighten the mood even if a little bit. Well...I hope you like it at least. I feel like I haven't really been including Tsuna and the others so I'll try to include them a lot more in later chapters as well.

Thank you so much! Please review as they are nice for motivation.


	5. Hospital Blues

Ciaossu, everyone! Sorry for the long wait, but there was school and life. You know, I have a life, too. It was really busy! But I'm not planning on abandoning this story, so don't worry. Even if the updates take forever I'll come back!

I finally got some time to work on this because of a snow day. For those of you who get snow where you live, don't you agree...snow days rock! And for those of you who don't have snow days...I'm sorry.

A little note: I'm also going back to previous chapters and am editing them. I don't know if it sends out alerts, but if it does you can ignore them, or you can go back and check and see what changes I've made. If you do, let me know if it's better or worse, 'kay?

Disclaimer: This is a recording: (beep) I don't own KHR. I don't own KHR. I don't own KHR. I don't own KHR. Don't believe me? I can do this all day. (beep) I don't own KHR. I don't own KHR. I don't own KHR...

* * *

><p>Tsuna looked around the waiting room nervously. It seemed to only be filled with a bunch of worried people who were all waiting for news of their friends or family. He glanced at his melancholy friend who was slouched in the chair next to him. When Yamamoto saw Tsuna looking at him, he smiled, but it instantly disappeared and he went back to staring at the waiting room doors.<p>

Tsuna sighed anxiously and also turned to look at the waiting room doors that were separating himself, Yamamoto and Gokudera from where Ani and Yamamoto's dad currently were. Gokudera had run down to the cafeteria, though, saying that he'd bring 'the Tenth' snacks while they waited. Tsuna silently hoped that he wouldn't cause too much trouble down there.

Thinking back on what happened to Ani, it really was strange what had happened. Yamamoto had explained on their way to the hospital, but it still didn't make sense.

The way Yamamoto put it, it was like she had been attacked by her own dream. A dream couldn't hurt anyone though...could it? It'd be really scary if that was the case.

The waiting room doors swung open, and Yamamoto instantly looked up in anticipation when a nurse walked out writing on her clipboard. She stopped walking, and looked up and at the group of people in the waiting room. She stiffened under everyone's gaze and began fidgeting with her clipboard.

"I-is there a Y-yamamoto-san here?" she announced. Yamamoto shot up from his seat, while some people groaned in annoyance at having to wait a bit longer. Tsuna got up and followed as well, frowning slightly at how strange Yamamoto was acting.

"Yes! I'm Yamamoto," he ran over to her. The nurse cried out in surprise at his sudden closeness and fell down, letting out a grunt when her bottom hit the ground. "Oh! I'm so sorry, Ma'am!" He bowed in apology. Tsuna fidgeted nervously under the weird looks they were getting from the other people in the room.

The nurse shook her head, and allowed Yamamoto to help her up. "No. It's o-okay. This is my first day working, so I-I'm a little nervous." As if to prove her point she let out a little nervous laugh and fumbled with her clipboard as she brought it up to her face.

"Yamamoto-san, yes?" she clarified. Yamamoto nodded. "W-well, you're friend is doing just fine. But the case is really strange. It seems like she was definitely attacked...but, we couldn't find any bruises anywhere on her body."

"We usually find at least one or two bruises in attack cases, but we couldn't even find one anywhere on her. What was also strange was all of the cuts and lacerations she received on her body. They were of all equal length and depth...none of them were life-threatening...but, something like that is almost impossible unless they had a lot of time, and the victim was being restrained. But, we didn't even find any bruises around her wrists or her ankles. Then there was..."

The nurse looked away, seeming unnerved about something. Yamamoto stepped closer. "What? What is it?"

She shook her head, and took in a shaky breath, hugging her clipboard close to her chest. "She had...burn marks all over her chest and back." Yamamoto's eyes widened in shock and he took a step backwards. Tsuna took a step back in shock as well. This didn't sound like an attack at all. It sounded more like torture. What did Ani do to deserve this?

"Burn marks? But...how?" Yamamoto looked bewildered. The nurse shook her head.

"We don't know," she chewed on her bottom lip uneasily, "but, that wasn't even the worst part. We found out that the burn marks spelled out something...in English, too. After a while we figured out what it was saying. It said-"

"Manataka!" a shrill voice bellowed. The nurse stiffened and turned towards the owner of the voice who was currently charging straight at her.

"Y-yes, Chief?" she answered, cringing slightly as the other woman towered over her menacingly.

"Didn't you pay any attention to the training video! You aren't supposed to announce that kind of private information where just anyone can hear it! You'll scare the visitors!" It was true. Looking around, the people in the waiting room all looked pale and were staring over at them in shock. Although Chief was probably scaring them more than the story was.

The nurse, Manataka, looked at the ground ashamed, "S-sorry, Chief."

Chief shook her head in disbelief, then turned and bowed before Tsuna and Yamamoto, "I sincerely apologize for Manataka-san's stupidity of not following our protocol. I'll make sure myself that this won't happen again." Then she looked up.

"You!" she shouted pointing at Tsuna furiously, "What are _you_ doing here!" Tsuna pointed at himself, feeling slightly panicked and confused.

"Me?" he squeaked. Then he glanced at Yamamoto, but all he did was shrug his shoulders, seeming to be as equally confused.

"Yes, you!" she exhaled out of her nose sharply, "I remember you very well, Sawada-san. You were always causing trouble for the nurses here," she glanced at Yamamoto, and slightly blushed, "and you even brought along one of your nurse-seducing friends here as well."

What? What! This wasn't fair at all! While Chief here was glaring daggers at him, she was being all sweet and flirty towards Yamamoto. Although, Tsuna wasn't really complaining. She was like, double their age.

Yamamoto laughed nervously and scratched at the back of his neck. "Thanks, I think?" Then his face became serious. "But could you please explain what happened to Ani-chan?" Chief turned towards Manataka.

"Isn't that the foreigner?"

Manataka nodded slightly. "Y-yes, Chief." Chief huffed out of annoyance, turning to glare at Tsuna.

"Well of course _he'd _be involved with the foreigner. He's just causing more trouble than I should care for." She jabbed a finger at Tsuna threateningly causing him to flinch back, "If I see a sign, or if I hear the slightest whisper of you troubling the patients or guests I'll kick you out. I don't care if you're friends of Hibari-sama, rules are rules!"

And with that she stormed off back the way she came, leaving Tsuna to wonder exactly what it was Hibari did to get the hospital on his side. Sama? Something was definitely up.

"Oh, yeah," Chief turned back around, "Manataka! Make sure you remember to give Ani-san her pain meds! Yuichi had to leave early, so I'm counting on you!"

"Yes, Chief!" Manataka answered, saluting after her, seeming to be a little glad she got off without punishment. Just as she turned back to say something else a cry rang out through the halls.

"Tenth!" Tsuna turned to see Gokudera running towards them, his arms filled with trays of food. Unfortunately, Chief was still close enough to notice the danger Gokudera was presenting and gave him a vicious glare. Gokudera didn't notice as the trays were blocking his view.

But of course Tsuna noticed the fold in the carpet that was just threatening to trip someone, namely, Gokudera who was the perfect, unsuspecting victim for that.

"Gokudera! Stop!" Tsuna shouted trying to get his attention. If he dropped all of that food they'd surely be kicked out of the hospital!

"What?" his foot was about to step on the fold.

"Don't-" there was a blur from out of the corner of Tsuna's eyes.

Just as Gokudera stepped on the fold and he fell forward, trays sliding out of his arms, Yamamoto was there to catch every single tray. Tsuna gawked at the sight. It was like magic. One second they were in Gokudera's arms, and the next, Yamamoto was holding every single one of them like he had been holding them this whole time. There wasn't a speck of food anywhere on the ground.

Gokudera, who had ended up on all fours from tripping on the carpet stared at the ground in shock as though he was wondering how he got so close to it so quickly. He rolled back and sat on the balls of his feet looking up at Yamamoto.

Yamamoto was balancing the trays in his arms and grinned. "Saved!" Tsuna sighed in relief. That was close. Thank goodness for Yamamoto's athleticism. When he looked over at Chief he noticed that she seemed somewhat disappointed as she 'tsked' and crossed her arms angrily. She really didn't like them...well, him. Did she?

On the other hand, Manataka just 'oohed' and clapped her hands enthusiastically. "That was amazing, Yamamoto-san! You could be a really famous performer if you practiced at it."

Yamamoto laughed, "Maybe."

Gokudera growled and shot to his feet, glaring daggers at Yamamoto. "You did that on purpose, didn't you, damn Baseball-Freak!" he snarled, "You're just trying to get on the Tenth's good side!" Yamamoto just smiled and tried to look at him from around the trays without dropping them.

"Ma ma, calm down, Gokudera," he laughed, "I just don't want to get kicked out of the hospital without seeing Ani-chan yet." Gokudera just 'che'd'.

"Just give them back. I don't want you to get all of the credit." He held out his arms. Yamamoto just handed over all of the trays that he was holding in his right arm.

"Just take those, they'll be easier to carry." Gokudera just scowled slightly, but he gave in and made to move to grab the trays. Tsuna sighed internally. All of this anxiety would kill him one of these days.

Gokudera snatched them away as carefully as he could, then balancing them in his arms turned and began walking towards Tsuna with something like a mix of annoyance and pride on his face. Yamamoto began following after him looking like he was enjoying himself by being able to do something to distract himself.

That was when Tsuna noticed some familiar-looking yellow objects on the ground. "Guy-!"

But it was too late. Before they could react they both stepped on the yellow objects and fell backwards simultaneously, letting out cries of surprise.

XxXxXxX

"I'm so so sorry, Tenth!" Gokudera bowed so low that his head was touching the ground. "I didn't realize that there were banana peels on the ground! I'm so sorry!"

Tsuna just waved at him dismissively and smiled nervously. "It's fine. Really. It's not your fault." He glanced towards Yamamoto who was standing off to the side. "Besides, it's not me who's the most upset. Yamamoto was the one that really wanted to see Ani."

Gokudera scowled slightly and glanced over at Yamamoto as well. Yamamoto was staring at the hospital doors where a security guard had been put by Chief to keep them out. Tsuna sighed and crossed his arms in thought. He was sure that those banana peels hadn't been there before.

"Ciaossu!" Tsuna turned to see Reborn standing in the middle of the sidewalk. He was a little surprised to see Kyoko, Haru, Hana, Bianchi and the others standing behind him. Even Chrome was there.

"Reborn! What are you all doing here?" Tsuna asked. Luckily, Bianchi was wearing her goggles, so Gokudera was spared the pain of passing out.

"We came to see Ani-chan," Kyoko said smiling. She was holding

"Yeah! We came to see Ani-nee! I want to hear more of her stories!" Lambo guffawed. Tsuna sweat-dropped at Lambo's excitement.

"Tsuna-san!" Haru ran up to him and grasped his arm, "Did you see Ani-chan already? Is she awake? Is she doing okay? How is she?"

"Calm down, Haru!" Tsuna said, blushing from her closeness. "It's not like she's dying. Besides, we don't know how she is since we got kicked out before we had the chance to head up to her room."

"Hahi! Why'd you get kicked out?"

Gokudera answered, "Some jerk left banana peels on the ground, so Baseball-Freak and I slipped on them and spilled all of the food we were holding. Then that bitch nurse kicked us and the Tenth out." He glowered towards the hospital, "I should have blown her up when I had the chance."

"Hieee! Gokudera, that wouldn't have helped anything!" Tsuna cried. Gokudera just scowled and then he turned to glare at the hospital doors.

Reborn glared at Tsuna, "Dame-Tsuna, what are you doing getting kicked out of hospitals? I thought I taught you better."

"But-" he stopped when something cold and squishy hit his face. When it slid off Tsuna was surprised to see that it was a banana peel, and that it had been Bianchi who'd thrown it.

"Tsuna, your complaining gets so old sometimes. I don't know why you can't just listen to Reborn," she said, peeling another banana.

"Banana!" Gokudera glared at his sister, "Aneki! You were the one who left the peels on the ground weren't you!"

Bianchi sighed dreamily and leaned against a telephone pole. "They were delicious. Weren't they Reborn?" she asked.

Reborn nodded with a small smile on his face. "That they were."

"But how did you guys do that? We were there the whole time but we didn't see you at all!" Tsuna asked feeling a little apprehensive about what their answer would be.

"Hmm..." Bianchi successfully tossed the banana peel she was holding into a trash can, "I wonder..."

"Maybe you need more training, Dame-Tsuna, if you couldn't even sense our presence." Reborn said, pointing his gun at Tsuna threateningly. But before Tsuna could 'hiee' he lowered his gun and it changed back into Leon. "But that will have to wait for another time. We're going to go see Ani. I'm actually looking forward to meeting her. Maybe if she's strong enough she can join your family."

"Don't, Reborn!" Tsuna shouted, panicking slightly.

Yamamoto just laughed. "I think Ani-chan would like it. She seems like the type who wouldn't mind playing along with the kids." Tsuna stared at Yamamoto incredulously. He was glad that he seemed to cheer up somewhat, but...he still thought it was a game? Gokudera seemed to be thinking the same thing as he was scowling at Yamamoto, but when he turned to look over at Tsuna he growled in surprise and anger.

"Hey, stupid girl! How long were you planning on holding onto the Tenth!" He brought out some dynamite from who knows where. "Get away from him!"

"Hahi!" Haru startled and hid behind Tsuna. "But we're going to be married, so I need to spend as much time with him as possible!" She blushed and hid her face in Tsuna's back. "I'm so embarrassed now!"

"Eh! _You're_ embarrassed!" Tsuna cried, flushing from Haru's comment and at how much closer she seemed to be pulling him against her. Gokudera made to move towards them, but Yamamoto grabbed his arms, effectively restraining him.

"Ma ma, calm down Gokudera!" he said. "Let them have their fun!" Gokudera growled, frustrated at being restrained.

"Let me go, Baseball-Freak!" Gokudera snarled. Bianchi let out an annoyed sigh.

"You need to calm down, Hayato," she lifted up her goggles. Gokudera turned to look at her, but once he did he let out a strangled cry, and collapsed onto the ground foaming at the mouth. Tsuna and Yamamoto called out his name in concern and rushed over to help him.

"Tsuna-san!" Haru whined, pawing at the air where she had been holding him. Bianchi walked over to her side and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Let's go, Haru," she began, "they'll catch up to us later." Haru hesitated, but in the end nodded begrudgingly and followed along with everyone else who had all begun walking towards the hospital doors.

"See you inside, Tsuna-kun," Kyoko smiled.

"Wait!" Tsuna cried, "But we're not allowed to be in the hospital! What are we supposed to do?"

"Improvise, Dame-Tsuna!" Reborn shouted back, before he and the others disappeared behind the glass doors of the hospital.

XxXxXxX

Tsuna cried out in pain as the branch he had pushed out the way rebounded and whacked him across his cheek.

"Tenth! Are you okay?" Gokudera shouted from somewhere above him.

"Yeah! I'm fine," he shouted back. "Are we almost there?" Tsuna carefully moved some branches out of the way and grabbed for a large enough branch to use to pull himself up.

Yamamoto was the one to reply, "We're almost there! I think we've got about one more meter to go before we reach it!"

Tsuna tried looking for Yamamoto through the thick foliage and was shocked to see that he was five feet above him already with Gokudera just half a meter behind. He sighed and struggled to pull himself up. They were so much more athletic than him that it was sad.

After a few more minutes of climbing Yamamoto called out to Tsuna and Gokudera announcing that he could see the window that led into Ani's room. Yamamoto and Gokudera had to wait for Tsuna to catch up, but once he got there he looked through the window from outside and spotted Reborn and the others crowded in the hospital room.

"But how do we get in?" Tsuna looked at the others questioningly, but all they did was shrug.

"I could blow the window in, Tenth," Gokudera suggested, holding up some dynamite.

"Hiie! I don't think that's necessary, Gokudera," Tsuna cried. Gokudera just shrugged and pocketed his dynamite. Yamamoto glanced at the window in thought.

"Maybe we could- OW!" Yamamoto suddenly tipped forward violently and slid off of the branch he was sitting on. Tsuna was too far away to do anything and before Gokudera could grab onto Yamamoto's shirt a streak of gray shot out towards his face. Gokudera cried out in surprise and fell backwards, also sliding off of his branch.

Tsuna could only watch helplessly as his two friends crashed down the tree, crying out in pain each time they collided with a branch. He would've helped, but being the dame that he was, he'd only end up falling down along with them. Tsuna flinched at the sound of impact when they finally reached the ground.

"Gokudera! Yamamoto! Are you two okay!" he called out, laying down on his stomach to try and see them.

"I'm okay, Tenth," Gokudera replied, sitting up. Yamamoto sat up while cradling his head.

"I'm all right, too," he answered. "Just a little shaken up is all. What was that anyways?" As if to answer his question, the gray streak Tsuna had seen earlier shot out from somewhere above in the tree and landed on Tsuna's branch, who currently had his arms wrapped around it for dear life.

He closed his eyes and let out a yelp of surprise as the branch shook from the impact. When it finally stopped shaking he opened his eyes, which widened when he saw what was in front of him.

"C-cat!" Tsuna stared dumbly at the short-haired, silver cat that was staring right at him with its yellow eyes.

"Tenth! Are you alright!" Gokudera called out. Obviously, he became worried when he heard Tsuna yelp in surprise. Tsuna glanced back down and saw him begin to climb back up the tree with renewed strength, Yamamoto right behind him.

"I'm okay!" he answered, trying to stop Gokudera before he did something drastic. "But I think I know who your attacker was." Gokudera and Yamamoto 'huh'ed?' simultaneously as their heads poked through the foliage. Then Yamamoto gasped.

"Hey! I know that cat!" he exclaimed, pulling himself up further and sitting on the branch. He tilted his head in thought. "That cat was with Ani when I found her this morning." The cat noticed Yamamoto looking at it, and Tsuna swore he saw it glare. But, as usual Yamamoto just didn't notice or didn't care.

"Come here, kitty," Yamamoto cooed, moving closer to it with his hand out.

"Wait, Baseball-Freak!" Gokudera shouted right as the cat's fur bristled. "I know that look. It's the same look Uri gets when I forget to give him catnip. That stupid cat will scratch you if you get closer. Or worse, he'll go after Tenth."

Yamamoto just laughed, "I don't think it's mean. It was being really sweet to Ani earlier." Yamamoto moved towards the cat, but it hissed and struck out.

"Hiie! Yamamoto are you okay!" Tsuna cried looking at the scene in front of him. Yamamoto laughed but it sounded a little strained.

"Aw, he tried high-fiving me, but he scratched me on accident." Yamamoto held up his injured hand where there was blood oozing out from where he had been scratched. Tsuna sweat-dropped, but then he noticed the cat move suddenly.

"Fuck!" Gokudera snarled as the cat lunged towards Tsuna. Tsuna shrieked and covered his face expecting the cat to scratch it off, but instead he felt little paws push down on the top of his head.

Tsuna grunted as the cat propelled off of his head, and miraculously ended up at the window sill where it seemed to smirk over at them.

"Tenth! Are you okay!" Gokudera swung over to Tsuna and looked him over trying to see if he was hurt anywhere. When he didn't see anything to cause worry, Gokudera turned and faced the cat, "Damn cat! You're lucky you didn't hurt the Tenth!"

The cat's tail flicked, and it began meowing, pawing at the window.

"Calm down, Gokudera, you're scaring it," Tsuna said, trying to placate his angered friend.

"But-" Before Gokudera could say anything else the window opened to reveal Kyoko.*

"AW! What a cute, little kitty," she cooed. "Did you get stuck there, Kitty?" Tsuna was about to cry out a warning that the cat might attack her, but when she wrapped her arms around it and it snuggled, actually snuggled against her, he felt his jaw drop.

He watched as Kyoko cuddled the cat and whispered loving words to it. Tsuna couldn't help but feel slightly jealous. And angry. What was that cat's problem? Then he saw Hana come into view as she walked over to Kyoko's side.

"What is it, Kyoko?" she asked.

"It's horrible, Hana," Kyoko began, "I found this cat on the window-sill, I think it got stuck there." Hana looked the cat over, and smiled, rubbing it behind its ears.

"Well, it doesn't look like it's hurt, so that's good," Hana said. "But I wonder how it fell." She moved towards the window and looked out, scanning the above area.

Yamamoto took this chance to get her attention, "Hana-san!" He moved through the branches until he was as close as he could get to the edge of the branch without it breaking, or falling off. Hana's eyes widened when she noticed him, and they widened even further when she noticed Tsuna and Gokudera.

"What are you three doing!" she hissed.

"Argh! Just move out of the way so we can jump in, woman!" Gokudera growled. Hana's eyes narrowed.

"What is it, Hana?" Kyoko asked, still holding the cat against her chest. Hana gave them a smoldering look before turning back towards Kyoko.

"Nothing," she said, "just some stupid monkeys."

XxXxXxX

"You're just lucky that the Tenth doesn't want us to found out, or I'd have already blown you to smithereens," Gokudera seethed. Hana just scoffed and rolled her eyes.

"_So_ scary~" she sneered, glaring daggers at him. A pissed off Hana was not something you wanted to see.

"Behave yourselves you two," Bianchi warned. "Do I need to remind you that we're in a hospital with sick and injured patients in these very rooms?" Hana apologized while looking at the bed where Ani was, then down at the ground guiltily. Gokudera just muttered a 'sorry' and hunched over.

Tsuna was sitting in one of the chairs awkwardly. All of the girls were huddled around the bed where Ani was, and he really didn't feel like pushing through them to see Ani. Even that cat was in the circle, although Tsuna couldn't see him at the moment. Was Ani even awake? Now that he thought about it, everyone was just speaking words of encouragement and comfort to her.

Tsuna sighed and rubbed at his head. His Hyper Intuition was acting up again. He turned to look at Yamamoto who was currently sitting next to him with a small smile on his face.

"Hey, I thought you wanted to go see how Ani-chan was doing, Yamamoto, so why are you just sitting there?" Tsuna asked leaning back to make himself comfortable.

Yamamoto shook his head. "I don't know...I was feeling really anxious about seeing her. Because she looked horrible this morning. I was just worried that she might not make it. Seeing her there, and doing okay makes me happy." He placed his head in his hands.

"But what's really bothering me is how could I let something like this happen right under my nose! What if she was attacked because the attacker was after me? I'm supposed to be strong enough to handle something like this, but I couldn't even protect Ani-chan and she was in the room across the hall. I'm really pathetic, aren't I?"

"No you're not." Tsuna frowned at his friend. "Don't start thinking like that. I don't think that there was anything you could really do. You did what you could do, and look. You saved Ani-chan's life! That has to count for something. Don't put yourself down anymore than you already have, Yamamoto."

Yamamoto kept his head down, "How can you be so sure, Tsuna? I'm sure Ani will want to leave now."

"I can just tell, Yamamoto. I don't think she'll leave just because of something like this. If you're worried, then talk to her once she wakes up." Yamamoto looked up towards where Ani was. Then he turned and smiled gratefully at Tsuna.

"Thanks, Tsuna. I always feel better after talking with you." Tsuna laughed, and rubbed the back of his neck embarrassed.

"Hahi! Look, Ani-chan's waking up!" Haru exclaimed. Yamamoto shot up from his seat, and with some reassuring from Tsuna they made their way over to Ani's bed, where the others made some room for them.

Even though Tsuna had caught a glimpse of her earlier that morning, seeing her up close was really different. She had bandages adorning her face and arms, while her brown hair was spread out fan-like on her pillow. He didn't know why, but this scene reminded him of either Snow White or Sleeping Beauty.

His Hyper Intuition was warning him about something, but it wasn't as extreme as it was earlier that morning, so he just decided to ignore it. It was probably just some lingering after effects.

Then, Ani let out a moan, and her eyes opened to reveal brown eyes matching the exact same shade of brown that her hair was. Her eyes were half-glazed as she scanned all of the people around her. When her eyes rested on Tsuna, he really wasn't expecting the kind of greeting she gave him.

She shrieked and lashed out with her arm, effectively striking Tsuna's chin and sending him flying backwards.

* * *

><p>*I'm pretty sure hospital windows can't be opened, but for the sake of this story let's just say that they can :)<p>

It's kind of funny. Every time I use spell-check it always wants to correct Tsuna to tuna. Oh, you silly spell-checker you. Hahaha...NO!

I also wanted to say: Thank you for your patience! I might be able to work on this more now that school's calming down a bit, but I'm still not 100% sure. Like I said, I'm not planning on abandoning this story, but in really busy times, with the woes of life and writer's block, updates may be slow.

Reviews are very motivational as well~


	6. Recovery?

Sorry for the late...okay, really late delay, but my school life had just been really busy, and it didn't help that my brain was just shutting down. I am so glad that I'm on Spring Break. I feel horrible, though, I'm gone for who knows how long, and then I write this crappy thing. I hope this chapter's up to par, and I'm sorry if it's not.

Any English spoken will be _italicized_, so as to avoid confusion.

Disclaimer: Amano Akira-sama owns this, not me.

* * *

><p>There were multiple things that happened then. While Tsuna was lying on the ground clutching at his face Gokudera had gone into 'PROTECT THE TENTH!' mode, placing himself between his beloved boss (and in Gokudera's eyes) the insane and raving lunatic who was now up and getting ready to continue her attack.<p>

But before Ani could even move another inch Bianchi jumped on her, effectively pinning her down with her body weight. Everyone who had been around the bed moved away in shock all except Yamamoto who was moving his arms somewhat, unsure of what to do.

Ani had managed to throw Bianchi off somewhat and she tried jumping off of the bed again, but Bianchi let out a grunt of effort and managed to jump on her again. Ani cried out as she fell face forwards against the bed, with Bianchi using her knee to pin her in place.

"Ani, calm down!" Bianchi grunted, then she turned her head to look at Yamamoto who was the closest. "Help me, Yamamoto! Don't just stand there like an idiot!"

"R-right," Yamamoto made to help, but stopped when Gokudera roared.

"Argh! Baseball-Freak! Aneki! Just move out the way so I can blow her up for hurting the Tenth!"

"Huh?"

"Hiee! Gokudera!" Tsuna shrieked and was about to say something, but Haru beat him to it by pouncing on Gokudera with a battle cry.

"You idiot!" She began pounding him with her fists, "Ani-chan is hurting right now and you want to blow her up!"

"Haru's right," Hana walked over to the duo with purpose in each step, "and if you think that we'll just let you stupid, monkey boys do whatever you want to Ani-chan then you've got another thing coming." She stopped so that she stood just above them then crossed her arms across her chest glaring down at Gokudera who was glaring right back at her.

"You..." he shoved Haru off of him, who squeaked out of surprise, and stood up to full height, "You stupid women can't tell me what to do!"

"We can when it involves other girls!" Hana replied hotly, not flinching at the glare Gokudera was shooting at her. Gokudera opened his mouth to retort but was interrupted by an annoyed and desperate cry.

"GUYS!" Bianchi cried, who was struggling with holding down Ani. "Stop fighting about who's going to hurt Ani and come help me before she hurts herself!"

Ani struggled once more against Bianchi's hold in a vain attempt to get free, but when she didn't succeed she growled out of frustration and settled for glaring at Tsuna. Tsuna flinched at the intensity of her glare, and felt like crying. Why was she glaring at him!

"_Marco! If you think that I'll just go with you then you're crazy! There's no way that I'll go! I'll kill myself before I go back home! I swear to God I will!" _

"I don't understand what you're saying!" Tsuna replied, confused beyond belief. He never did well in English class anyways.

Yamamoto took a hesitant step towards Ani. "Ani-chan..." I-pin hid into Chrome's arms at the outburst, while Lambo just looked at Ani in confusion, then at the others to see how they would react.

Everyone in the room was surprised at Ani's sudden use of English, especially Bianchi, who's hold on Ani had slackened during her tirade.

"Does anyone know what she's saying?" Haru asked, as she just watched helplessly. No one got the chance to answer when Ani began yelling again.

"_I won't, I won't, I won't!"_ Ani screeched, then began fighting against Bianchi's hold once more. After elbowing Bianchi in the gut, Ani finally used the bed as a springboard and jumped off, heading towards the window which was wide open.

"Somebody stop her!" Kyoko shrieked, covering her mouth in horror. Finally snapping out of his stupor, Yamamoto raced after Ani and tackled her to the ground. He was half-expecting her to put up a fight like she had with Bianchi, but to his surprise he saw that she had been knocked out.

"Ah! Oh man!" Yamamoto rolled Ani over so that she was on her back. Her eyes were spinning and she was moaning. "Guys? I think I accidentally knocked her out!"

"Well that's just great, Baseball-Freak!" Gokudera snarled as he brought out some dynamite. "Now move out of the way so I can blow her u-" Gokudera fell back with a cry when a chair suddenly appeared where his head had just been.

"Stay still you stupid monkey!" Hana shouted, swinging the chair at him once more. She stopped to glare at Yamamoto. "You're next for hurting Ani-chan, too, you other stupid monkey!"

"What? But..."

Hana ignored Yamamoto and brought the chair up, swinging it at Gokudera once more. She grunted out of surprise when it slipped out of her hands and went sailing towards Tsuna who was still sitting on the ground. He shrieked as it crashed at his side and the chair legs just barely hit his head.

"Tenth!" Gokudera turned to glare at Hana, "You stupid woman! You could have killed the Tenth!"

"Well I didn't and that wouldn't have happened if you had just stayed still!" Hana shouted back.

"Hey," Lambo tugged on Hana's skirt, "Lambo-san is bored, play with me."

"EWW! Don't get so close to me you're giving me hives!" Hana pushed Lambo away with her foot like he was a pile of dirty clothes and went back to arguing with Gokudera.

"To-le-rate," Lambo tried to put on a brave face, but it instantly fell apart. "WAAHHH! Lambo-san has had enough!" To Tsuna's horror he brought out the ten-year bazooka and aimed it himself while still bawling. A pink cloud instantly surrounded Lambo and there in his place stood the older, and much more handsome Lambo.

"Eh? I was just about to step into the bath. Where am I?" Tsuna's jaw dropped when he saw that the only thing future Lambo was wearing was a bath towel that was wrapped around his waist.

"Oh! It's that really handsome guy from before!" Hana clasped her hands together and swooned, completely ignoring Gokudera while Lambo just sweat-dropped at her.

"Hahi! It's that pervert from before!" Haru shrieked. Lambo's face lit up with shock and disbelief, then he turned to face Haru.

"Wait! It's not like that at all! It's just a misunderstanding!" he cried and took a step towards her.

"NOOO! Don't come near me, you pervert!" she covered her eyes and turned away running towards Tsuna. "Tsuna-san! Help me! Don't let him come near me!"

Tsuna grunted out of pain when Haru jumped on his lap and hid her face in the curve of his neck. Tsuna's face flared up, and just groaned in exasperation and tugged at his hair. How in the world had things turned out like this! And where was Reborn who had just so happened to conveniently disappear?

"Boss..." Tsuna looked up to see Chrome standing in front of him awkwardly holding I-pin, "um...I hope I'm not interrupting anything, but I think that you should calm everyone down before-"

"WHAT IN THE WORLD IS GOING ON IN HERE!" The door to the room shot open and standing in the doorway was the one person that Tsuna was hoping he could avoid. Chief. Her jaw fell open as she took in the scene in front of her.

Chrome frowned and pulled I-pin closer to her, "Too late." Tsuna could only nod in mild horror, already knowing that this wouldn't end well.

Chief looked around the room in disbelief. There was another one of the nurse-seducing boys here, and this time he was only wearing a towel of which Chief had to pinch her nose to prevent the oncoming nosebleed from getting everywhere. Then there was that nurse-seducing boy from earlier who was hovering over the foreigner patient who was seemingly unconscious and laying on the floor. What was going on with this scene? There was a strange woman on the hospital bed, a boy and a girl were about ready to throw chairs at each other, and why was there a cat in here? Then in the middle of it all she saw him, and with a girl no less!

"YOU!" she screeched, pointing at poor, little Tsuna who had been cowering at the sight of her, "I thought I told you to never come back in here! How in the world did you get in! That's it! I'm calling the PPP^, and then the police!"

She dug into her pocket and pulled out a small whistle like the one that is used for dogs. She put it to her mouth and was about to blow when a voice stopped her.

"That won't be necessary, Chihiro-san*." Chief, no, Chihiro turned around and eeped when she saw who it was.

"D-Director!" The man in question walked into the room and looked around at the people around him. Then he turned back to face Chihiro and smiled softly.

"Let's let the youth have their fun. Besides, they're Hibari-kun's friends." Tsuna sighed. So once again they were saved because of Hibari. "And they've got another visitor coming...Have you ever heard of the famous doctor, Reboyama?"

"R-Reboyama!" Chihiro's eyes widened comically so that they were almost as large as dinner plates. "H-he's coming here! Right now h-he is?" The director nodded gravely and faced the door.

"He's here right now, actually. Reboyama-sensei, if you'd please you may come in now."

Tsuna pursed his lips together in thought. Reboyama...Why did that name sound so familiar?

There were some light footsteps from the hall, and then in walked Reboyama-sensei, two feet tall and clad in his lab coat. Tsuna's eyes drooped in disdain.

Of course it had to be Reborn.

"Thank you for taking the time to come, Reboyama-sensei," Director bowed deeply.

"Y-yes! It's a great pleasure finally being able to meet someone as knowledgeable as you, Reboyama-sensei," Chihiro too bowed deeply.

"It's a pleasure to be here," Reborn said, bowing back at them. "But I must ask you to leave so I can speak with these people."

"As you wish, Reboyama-sensei," Director bowed deeply once more, "I hope that your efforts are successful as they always are." Then he faced Chihiro. "Come, Chihiro-san. Let's give Reboyama-sensei the space he needs." Chihiro visibly deflated, but she nodded and after giving Reboyama another quick bow followed after the director and closed the door behind her. There was a minute of awkward silence.

"So..." Reborn spun around and made a pose, holding a needle in his hand, then in a cutesy voice said, "now, who's going to get their shots first?" Everyone but Tsuna shrank back in fear as Reborn squirted some of the fluid out.

Tsuna felt a vein pop. "Don't screw around, Reborn! Where were you?"

"Who's Reborn? I'm the great Reboyama-sensei, and I'm here to take care of the injured," he said sweetly. He pointed at Yamamoto, "You, place the patient back on the hospital bed, and, you," he pointed at Gokudera, "I need you to help move the nice lady who's already over there out of the way so then we can put the patient back on there."

"Yes, Reboyama-sensei!" Yamamoto and Gokudera stated as they proceeded to carry out their orders.

"Reborn! What are you doing?" Tsuna shouted. There was a sudden puffing sound, and when Tsuna turned to look he saw that ten-years later Lambo was now back to his annoying five-year old self. Lambo looked around the room while sucking on a lollipop. Who gave him this stuff? Or maybe he just got it from his hair.

"All right, Reboyama-sensei," Yamamoto said after setting down Ani. "Ani-chan's on the bed now." He backed up while keeping a worried look on her face.

"Thank you, young man," Reborn said, then jumped up on the bed alongside Ani. Tsuna shot up and ran over to the side of the bed. Everyone else followed suit and crowded around the bed as well.

"Wait, Reborn! What are you going to do?" Reborn just smirked.

"I'm going to wake her up, Dame-Tsuna. Wasn't that obvious?"

XxXxXxX

The first thing Ani noticed as the fog lifted from her mind was a smell. It was the most putrid and gut wrenching smell that she had ever come across. A mix between moldy cheese and wet dog, and some other unholy smells that were starting to make her nauseous.

She tried turning her face to get away from the smell, but it followed her nose no matter which way she turned. It was getting too horrible to bear...

"_Aughh!_" she shot up and covered her nose and mouth with both hands in an attempt to block off whatever that horrible smell was. Ani groaned and shook her head in an attempt to shake off the smell. She stopped when there was a sudden sharp pain at the back of her head, so she moved her hands to rub at it. It felt like she was hit in the head by a sledgehammer.

"Ani-chan! You're awake now, right?" Groggily, Ani turned to look at the voice and was surprised to see so many people crowded around her.

"Kyoko-chan?" Ani asked looking at the orange-haired girl, then frowned when she saw her holding a cat. "_Where- _er, where am I?" She scanned the room and saw the machines that were letting off small, repetitive beats. When Ani shifted on the bed she felt a sudden cold draft touch her back and then she realized that she was wearing a hospital gown.

At this point, Ani didn't really need Kyoko or anyone else to answer her question. She knew exactly where she was, even though not in terms of geographical location.

"Well, you're in Namimori Hospital, Ani-chan," Kyoko smiled softly at her.

"The...hospital," that was when Ani noticed all of the bandages on her arms, and when she shifted a little more she could feel many more covering her legs, back and chest. "That's right...I was...I was..." She wrapped her arms around herself but then groaned in pain when her body started burning. "_Oww..."_

"Are you okay, Ani-chan?" Kyoko asked, frowning a little out of concern.

"I'll be okay, Kyoko-chan," Ani groaned, pressing down on her arms to try and suppress the pain.

"Are you sure you'll be okay, Ani-chan?" Ani turned towards the voice and was half-surprised to see Yamamoto leaning down so that he was at eye-level with her. She just nodded bravely, despite the intense burning that she was still feeling.

A million thoughts were running through Ani's head, but the most prominent thought was of how she ended up in the hospital and how horrible it was that she had. Hospitals write down everything, and somewhere in this building they had a record of her stay with all of her details which would then be put on the computer to which anyone could access if they had the right tools.

Her thoughts were interrupted when she heard a squeaky voice and a small person appeared on the end of the bed. Ani's eyes widened in surprise.

"You're name is Ani-chan, right?" Ani nodded her head numbly at the sight of this baby in front of her. "My name is Reboyama-sensei, and I'm the doctor who's in charge of taking care of you right now."

"Doctor, huh?" Ignoring the shock of the doctor being a baby, Ani squeezed her hands together and tried to keep herself composed. Maybe if she talked to him she could get him to erase her files. That way she could be safer. Feel safer. Even if just for a little bit longer.

"Um...Reboyama-sensei, I-I need to-"

"You want to talk to me alone don't you?" he finished for her. Ani's eyes widened in surprise at his mind-reading skills and just nodded dumbly.

"Yes, but, how did you-"

"How did I know?" Reborn smirked and looked at her, "I could see it in your eyes. I'd know that look anywhere." Ani just stared at him, mouth slightly open. There was something about this doctor that seemed all-knowing, omniscient almost. It was really amazing.

"Wait a minute, Reboyama-sensei!" Gokudera pushed his way to the bed and glared at Ani causing her to flinch. What a scary person! "I need to give her a piece of my mind for throwing a fit and hurting the Tenth! It's all her fault for how crazy everybody got, too!"

"What are you talking about!" Ani cried, trying to hide under her sheets. "I-I didn't hurt anyone!"

"Did too!" Gokudera snarled, "Now Tenth is sporting a horrible bruise and it's all your f-"

"That's enough out of you," Reborn stated while kicking Gokudera in the face, causing him to crash into the wall on the opposite side of the room. "I don't need you stressing out my patient anymore," then Reborn pointed into the crowd of people, "Tsuna, you come here so my patient can have some closure."

"What do you need me for!" Tsuna cried as he pushed his way through the others. He really wasn't sure why Ani had hit him earlier and he wasn't exactly thrilled to go closer to her where the same thing could happen again.

Ani, meanwhile, was struck speechless at the sudden turn of events, and was especially shocked at how somebody as small as Reboyama-sensei could send someone sailing like that. It was scary. So that was why she wasn't really paying attention to who this Tsuna was, and that was why when she just caught a glimpse of brown hair and caramel eyes she panicked.

Marco!

"_NOOO!"_ she swung her arm out and felt her fist connect with something. She groaned and cradled her hand which was starting to throb, but managed a look at who she had hit and gasped in surprise. It wasn't _him_, although his hair and eye color were really similar. The boy was sprawled on the ground, and rubbed at his face where Ani guessed she had hit him.

"Oh kami! I'm so, so sorry! It was an accident! I thought you were someone else!" Ani cried.

"Like hell it was an accident!" Ani gasped, and saw that the guy Reboyama-sensei had hit earlier was now standing with a killing aura surrounding him. "How the fuck do you accidentally punch somebody, especially the Tenth!"

"Ma ma, calm down, Gokudera," Yamamoto held Gokudera back when he tried going for Ani. "She said it was an accident, and she apologized."

"That's right!" Hana, Haru, Bianchi, I-Pin, and even Chrome lined up so that they formed a sort of wall between Gokudera and Ani. Bianchi was acting as the group's spokesperson. "We won't allow you to lay one finger on Ani-chan's head, Hayato!"

"Everyone..." Ani wiped at her eyes. These people really were too kind, but she felt like this kindness was going to get her killed one of these days.

"Yamamoto and the others are right, Gokudera," Tsuna stood up, while still clutching at his cheek. He winced slightly, but managed to keep his face fairly composed. "I can tell that Ani means it. Don't worry about it anymore."

"But..." at the look Tsuna gave him, Gokudera gave in, "if you say so, Tenth," Gokudera muttered and stopped fighting, although he did send Ani another dirty look. Ani looked down at the bed sheets like they were the most interesting thing in the world as she fought back some tears. It really was an accident. After a couple seconds she couldn't hold it in anymore and faced Tsuna.

"I really am sorry!" she cried, and bowed as low as she could while sitting on the bed and ignored the burning from her cuts the action caused. "You just looked a lot like my brother, and I mistook you for him. Please forgive me!"

"Ah!" Tsuna waved his arms in embarrassment. "Wait, r-really! It's no problem! I've been hit worse by Reborn, so you don't have to worry about it."

"But..."

"Don't worry about it any longer, Ani-chan," Reborn said, putting his hands into his lab coat pockets, "you don't have to bow down to _him_, so raise your head." Tsuna gave Reborn an irritated look, while Reborn just ignored him. Ani watched this exchange and wondered if these two knew each other, since they were acting like old friends...to some extent.

Besides that, Ani decided to follow Reboyama-sensei's (Reborn's) advice to sit back up, since she was starting to feel really awkward and her back was aching. Ani used her arms as support to push herself back upright, but froze when a searing pain flared across her back. She bit her tongue to hold in the cry of pain she almost let out, and collapsed back onto the bed feeling tears sting at her eyes due to the pain. It felt like her back was being cut into with a thousand sharp knives, each one laced with acid.

"Ah! Are you okay!" that was Tsuna's voice.

"Ani-chan!" that was Yamamoto's voice. "Hey! Are you okay! Where does it hurt?" Ani heard some shuffling and she sensed that he had moved closer to her. She would've turned to see, but she was too scared to move less that pain flare up again.

Ani felt a hand rest on her back, and she was instantly reminded of the fact that she was wearing a hospital gown and her back was probably really exposed right now. But when Yamamoto's touch sent waves of pain all over her body she became too distracted by it to worry about how much of her body was being exposed. Ani vaguely heard the others say her name out of concern, but couldn't worry about it when the doctor began speaking again.

"All right, guys!" he clapped his hands to get everyone's attention. "I need to attend to my patient seeing as how she's in great pain! So..." everyone cried out in surprise when they suddenly found themselves out in the hall, "if you could all just wait out here then that would be great."

Tsuna, who, for once, luckily ended up on top of the dog pile, just stared at the now closed door in worry. He really hoped that Reborn wouldn't do anything crazy.

"I hope Reboyama-sensei can help Ani-chan," Haru murmured worriedly, also disentangling herself from the dog pile.

"Don't worry, guys." Tsuna turned to see Bianchi leaning up against the wall, of course she would be spared the pain of being in the dog pile. "I'm sure Ani-chan will be fine. Anyone with the kind of energy she had will be able to get better in not time."

"That reminds me, are you okay, Bianchi?" Kyoko questioned worriedly, "Ani-chan hit you hard in your stomach, didn't she?" Bianchi just waved it off, but she put a hand on her side and rubbed at it, wincing slightly at the pain.

"Don't worry about me. Right now we need to pray for Ani's recovery since she's the one hurting really badly right now." That was when Tsuna remembered something.

"Oh crap!" he pulled at his hair worriedly, "Didn't Reborn say he was going to try recruiting her! What if he's doing that right now! I've gotta stop him!" He tried jumping for the door but cried out in surprise when multiple pairs of hands pulled him back.

"Tsuna-san," Haru smiled too sweetly, "let Reboyama-sensei do his job. Because if you interrupt them and end up hurting Ani-chan more-"

"-we won't forgive you." Tsuna gulped as every single one of the girls in the group gave him a death glare. Female power really was a force to be reckoned with.

XxXxXxX

Meanwhile, back in the room.

"So, Ani-chan, tell me exactly where it hurts," Reborn said, jumping back on the bed.

"Well...it's my whole back really. It feels like it's being burned off every time I move."

"I see," there was a clicking sound and Ani was tempted to look up but stopped when the pain came back, "do you want the good news or bad news first?"

A burst of fear and panic shot through Ani. "Can't there only be good news?" she asked hopefully.

"No." Ani blanched at his sudden bluntness. "There can't be good news without bad news otherwise it would just be news, wouldn't it?" Ani soaked in what he said. There was some heavy truth behind those words.

"I'll have the good news first, then," Ani decided.

"Your wounds can be easily treated through a fairly simple process. If you'll let me I can get rid of all of this pain sooner than you can say, reborn."

"That sounds like a miracle, Reboyama-sensei," Ani replied, "but I'll do it. So, what's the bad news, then?" There was some more of that clicking sound from earlier, and then Ani felt something cold and hard press against the back of her head. What in the world was that?

"You have to die."

"What?"

Ani heard the gunshot go off right before she felt it. Her life literally flashed before her eyes right at this moment with her last thoughts racing through her head as well.

Why did that doctor have a gun and just shoot her? Was she really going to die right here and now? Years before her time, and when she was just starting to make some new friends. What was going to happen to those guys? Was this crazy doctor going to go after them after he was finished with her?

No. She couldn't let that happen. She hadn't been strong enough to hold her own back home, but here in Japan, with all of her new friends, she had to at least try to protect them. She couldn't die yet. She wouldn't allow herself to die yet. Not yet.

Suddenly, Ani's cooling body flared with a heat that seemed to come from the deepest part of her being. The heat continually expanded out to her chest, her arms and legs, her head, then finally it reached the tips of her toes and fingertips until it felt like her whole body was on fire.

All of a sudden, the fire disappeared, and when Ani opened her eyes she found herself lying face-down on the bed. She took in a breath and coughed as the dry air filled her lungs causing them to burn. Then she sat up, and with trembling hands reached up to feel her head where she was sure the bullet had gone through. No matter how much she felt, she couldn't find the bullet hole, even though the sensation of being shot was fresh in her mind and the pain was still lingering.

She turned to look at the small doctor, and in the process realized with shock that it didn't hurt to move. In experimentation she raised her arms and when it didn't hurt she twisted her body to the right, then to the left, but it still didn't hurt.

"How are you feeling, Ani-chan?" Reborn asked, smiling slightly.

"I-I...it doesn't...but...how...what happened?" Ani inquired in disbelief.

"It's a new bullet that was just discovered recently. I like to call it the Viva bullet#-" but before he could explain any further the door burst open, startling Ani and causing her to shriek. She put a hand on her heart to help calm down as she saw that one guy, Tsuna, walk in with Yamamoto and Gokudera following after him. Shortly after, Bianchi and the others followed as well. Haru was fuming.

"Tsuna-san! What if they're in the middle of her treatment! You can't just barge in here!"

"That doesn't matter right now, Haru! I heard a gunshot and I bet Reborn is torturing her to try to get her to join my family!"

"Do you really have such little faith in me, Tsuna," Reborn said, crossing his arms, and smirking a little.

"Well-" it looked like he was about to say something else, but when Tsuna saw Ani sitting upright and seemingly not being tortured he became tongue-tied and flushed in embarrassment.

"Yo, Ani," Yamamoto waved at her, "did the treatment work? You're looking a lot better."

"I think it did," Ani replied and she put her arms up in the air for emphasis, "I can't feel anymore pain. Reboyama-sensei is a miracle worker."

"That's great, Ani-chan!" Kyoko walked over to the bedside with a bright smile on her face. Ani noticed that Kyoko was still holding the cat from earlier, and it's eyes were half lidded in content when Kyoko stroked him behind the ears.

"Is that your cat, Kyoko-chan?" Ani asked, then reached over and stoked the cat under its chin eliciting a purr from it. Ani smiled. She'd wanted a cat when she was younger, but her dad wouldn't allow it since he was allergic to them, and thus that childhood dream was thrown out of the window from the beginning.

"No, I found him stuck on the windowsill so I brought him in," she continued rubbing him behind the ears, "he's such a nice kitty, too. Do you want to hold him?"

Ani blushed slightly, but nodded. Was she that easy to read? Kyoko set the cat down on Ani's lap, and Ani couldn't help but stare at it in awe. It's fur was absolutely beautiful, the silver was consistent and shone under the light, while the cat's eyes were the prettiest yellow she had ever seen.

The cat meowed, then went over to Ani's arm, and after some nudging managed to drape it over its body so that her hand was resting on its head.

"Aww..." that was Bianchi, who was still wearing goggles. Ani wondered why. "He's asking to be pet. How cute."

"Are you kidding, Aneki?" Gokudera hissed, "That cat attacked us when we were trying to get in here. There's nothing cute about it. It's a bakeneko."

"What's a bakeneko?" Ani cocked her head in thought. She really wasn't accustomed to Japanese culture, was she? Bianchi sighed irritably.

"Hayato, you and your strange superstitions. There's no way this cat is a bakeneko, it doesn't even have a forked tail."

"What's a bakeneko?"

"They don't need to have a forked tail in order to be one, Aneki! Besides they're called nekomata when they have a forked tail," Gokudera regarded the cat on Ani's lap with something like awe and fear. "If we're not careful then it'll eat us while we're sleeping!"

"Eat!" Ani looked at the cat in horror and trembled when it licked her hand that had recently been petting it.

"Really, Hayato!" Bianchi put her hands on her hips, "Don't put weird ideas into Ani's head. Besides, have you actually seen this little one do anything out of the ordinary?" Gokudera flinched in surprise.

"Er...well, not exactly..."

"That's exactly what I mean! You assume things before taking the time to look it over!"

"No! I can prove that that cat is a bakeneko! Just let me show you!" Gokudera tried maneuvering around Bianchi, but stopped when she placed a hand on his shoulder. "What now, Aneki!"

"You're getting out of control, Hayato, leave the poor cat alone," with her free hand she lifted up her goggles and stared straight into Gokudera's eyes.

"What's a bake- OH MY KAMI!" Ani stared in shock as Gokudera began foaming at the mouth and collapsed onto the ground.

"Hiee! Gokudera, are you all right!" Tsuna cried running over to his incapacitated friend. Bianchi flicked some of her hair out of her face and sniffed disdainfully.

"My work here is done," she stated. Ani, meanwhile was panicking at the sight of Gokudera on the ground, and foaming at the mouth. She turned to Reborn.

"Reboyama-sensei! Please work some of your miracle magic on him!" Reborn just looked at Gokudera and sniffed disdainfully as well.

"Meh, he'll be all right. Just ignore him."

And so Ani followed Reborn's advice and tried to ignore Gokudera as best as she could while chatting with Hana, Kyoko and the others, but it was a lot harder than she thought to to block out those gurgling sounds.

* * *

><p>^ Patient Protection Program. I just made it up. It doesn't exist...I think.<p>

* I just made up a name for that nurse. I just thought that it would've been weird for the director to call her Chief.

# The Viva bullet. It uses one's dying will flames to heal inner and outer injuries. The healing power depends on one's resolution. Full healing comes with a strong resolution while little healing comes from a weak resolution. The user will die if they don't have enough resolution to elicit some response from the bullet, so caution is urged when using it. I just made up this bullet. I'm not sure if Reborn is licensed to be a doctor either, but I think that he could be if he wanted to. He's that awesome.

Man, I just kept making stuff up, huh?

I never really noticed this until now, but it is so hard trying to fit everyone in the story. I don't know how Amano-sama does it. So, I apologize if I forget to include certain characters. I'm also going to continue editing past chapters, because the more I re-read them the more I think, "What the heck was I thinking here!" So hopefully they're a bit better, and I'll continue trying to improve them.

So...I really don't know if I'm going to have pairings in this story, and if I do then I really don't know between who. If you leave suggestions, then I'd be willing to listen. Then I'll make a poll once I see a large amount of people asking for a certain pairing(s).

Anyways, I just want to rant a little about the latest manga update, so you can ignore this if you want, especially if it'll be a **spoiler**. (Clears throat) So...I can't believe those stupid, cheating Vindice! They make me so mad that I just want to strangle them with their own chains! AGGH! And then Checkerface makes them fight right when they're trying to recover! AGGH! The only good thing that happened was with Lal and Colonnello. They were just so cute! KYAA! Okay, I'm done ranting now.

Please review, or alert or send me a sign that people are still reading this story! I need to know!


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